The Deaflympic Games is one of the most important global events for deaf people and it has been since 1924. It is also one of the world's fastest growing Games. British deaf athletes have been proud to represent their country and want to contribute to Britain's sporting successes. Unfortunately, unlike British Paralympic athletes, British deaf athletes do not receive aid from the Government for training, nor is there any funding in sight to aid their participation in the Taipei Deaflympic Games in 2009.

Deaf athletes cannot represent Great Britain in the Paralympic Games mainly because we have no other deaf countries to compete against; therefore, it would be pointless to join the British Paralympic squad. The Deaflympic Games was formed before the Paralympic Games, and is the oldest sporting event in the world for disabled people. Great Britain have always taken part in the Deaflympic Games.

For decades, the Government has been promoting and encouraging “equality” in the country, yet it has turned a deaf ear to deaf athletes who deserve every right to obtain quadrennial Deaflympic preparation funding. For more than a year and a half, UK Deaf Sport, on behalf of the Great Britain Deaflympic Organising Committee, has been in dialogue with Richard Caborn MP, Gerry Sutcliffe MP, and Andy Burnham MP, who have not really supported our deaf athletes. They have passed the buck when the topic comes to the Deaflympic Games; however, we appreciate that they gave us a one-off funding of £75,000 for the previous Melbourne Deaflympic Games in 2005. That is not enough, however. We need the money at the beginning of each Deaflympic quadrennial cycle to prepare properly.

It is unfair and unjust for deaf athletes not to receive any funding when athletes from the Paralympic squad do. In the previous Melbourne Deaflympic Games (2005), we broke the record in attaining the most medals compared to our past Deaflympic competitions, and we were one of the best teams in the world.

The cost of winning a medal in the Melbourne 2005 Deaflympic Games was £1,400 of the Exchequer's money per deaf athlete, compared to £1.6million per medal the Government shelled out for the athletes in the Athens Olympic Games 2004. We are baffled about the decision not to contribute anything to the Deaflympic squad consisting of 100 deaf athletes. We suspect that there is a fundamental lack of understanding within both UK Sport and the DCMS about the deaf sports culture and the significance of the Deaflympic movement.

We have produced deaf athletes of Olympic standard and we have evidence of a number of prominent deaf athletes who have successfully participated in Commonwealth, World and Olympic events. As a result of the DCMS department's decision, the Great Britain Deaflympic team may pull out from the Taipei Deaflympic Games if they do not receive any quadrennial funding.

In our opinion, it is a disgrace that deaf athletes have trained so hard for the past three years to try and attain their dreams of entering the Deaflympic Games and win medals for their country. All the deaf athletes' dreams, blood, sweat, and tears may just simply go down the drain and they will have wasted all their talents. Every athlete - able-bodied and disabled - will understand how this feels.