Tuesday, September 8, 2009

Problems at Deaflympics

The Taiwan organizers of Deaflympics are coming under fire for disorganization. One of the most often heard complaints is about transportation. Both athletes and journalists are having trouble getting to the venues located in and around Taipei from the 36 hotels in which they are staying during the games. Some countries have gone so far as to hire private vehicles to make sure they get their teams to the proper locations on time.

There have also been complaints about incomplete information appearing on the Deaflympics website and there are accusations that the posted information is incomplete, tardy and bias toward the Taiwanese team.

Although the country spent $6 million on the games, there are also a variety of problems with the competitions themselves. For instance, the Taipei Stadium swimming pool has only 8 lanes when Olympic-size pools should have ten. That's forced athletes to drive two hours out of town to swim in a back up pool.