Ruby Miller’s dream of representing Australia on the international stage is about to come true.<\/p>\n
But the honour of wearing the green and gold at the upcoming Deaflympics will come at a cost.<\/p>\n
The 17-year-old has some serious fundraising to do before she takes the field as part of the national women’s deaf soccer team.<\/p>\n
“Unfortunately, we have to pay our own way to get over to Japan,” Ruby said.<\/p>\n
The total amount needed to fund the trip is $10,000.<\/p>\n
“I’ve always wanted to represent Australia at the Olympics,” she said.<\/p>\n
“I’m working 10 times harder than everyone else [in the ‘hearing world’] just because I have to use my peripheral vision.<\/p>\n
“You can’t hear anyone from behind you. It’s like you’ve got to be aware of your surroundings.<\/p>\n
“Sometimes you wish they could put some Blu Tack in their ears and understand what it’s like to not be able to hear.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ruby Miller will be part of the Australian women’s soccer team at the Deaflympics. (Supplied: Deaf Football Australia)<\/p>\n
Her mother Ondria Miller could not be prouder, but said the opportunity was balanced against the financial reality of having to cover training and travel expenses.<\/p>\n
The single mum said local fundraising, grants and donations had played a key role in supporting her daughter’s aspirations.<\/p>\n
“We’ve been selling Jolly Soles, which are socks. Ruby’s brother has collected some wood with a family friend, and we’ve sold a few loads of wood,” she said.<\/p>\n
“We’ve had donations and grants, and people have just helped out wherever, and currently on Ruby’s uniform in Japan she has space on each of her sleeves for somebody to sponsor her so they can have their logo on her sleeve.”<\/p>\n
Lack of funding<\/p>\n
Deaf Football Australia secretary Brian Seymour, who is part of Ruby’s management team, said her financial plight was common among deaf athletes.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Brian Seymour, right, says deaf athletes do not think they are treated the same as other athletes. (Supplied: Deaf Football Australia)<\/p>\n
“A lot of the deaf community, when it comes to sport and to funding, they feel like they haven’t been treated fairly,” he said.<\/p>\n
Mr Seymour said it “would probably cost a million dollars” to send the required 100 people to this year’s Deaflympics.<\/p>\n
He said most of that money would have to come from charities and fundraising.<\/p>\n
“That money filters through \u2026 to help pay for players, training expenses, and maybe some clothing and what’s needed,” Mr Seymour said.<\/p>\n
“I just find it appalling when they can’t sort of even it up and say, here’s $2 million for you over four years or $5 million over four years.<\/p>\n
“All the money is just going to your able-bodied, your hearing person, and your Para[lympic] guys.”<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ruby Miller is a multi-disciplinary athlete, but will play football for Australia at the Deaflympics. (Supplied: Deaf Football Australia)<\/p>\n
Different goals<\/p>\n
Australian Olympians and Paralympians receive funding from the Australian Sports Commission (ASC), under what is known as the Win Well program.<\/p>\n
Senior performance and talent advisor at Paralympics Australia, Tim Matthews, said for those athletes, money was usually not an issue.<\/p>\n
“For a majority of athletes, I’d say for those that make a world championship team, it’s unlikely they would need to fund their participation at that event if it’s a sport that’s funded at a high-performance level,” he said.<\/p>\n
But Deaf Sports Australia (DSA) is funded under a different scheme, called Play Well, which is designed to encourage participation rather than high performance.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Ruby Miller will travel to Japan in November for the Deaflympics. (ABC Riverina: Nicola Ceccato)<\/p>\n
DSA received $168,500 from the ASC in the 2024-25 financial year.<\/p>\n
The ASC has declined to comment on why Deaf Sports Australia was not classed as a high-performance sport.<\/p>\n
Ruby said the challenges would only strengthen her resolve.<\/p>\n
“I have to really be self-driven and determined,” she said.<\/p>\n
“Whatever nights I don’t have soccer training on locally, I’ll go to the gym, I’m running nearly every day.<\/p>\n
“You really learn how to be independent.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Ruby Miller’s dream of representing Australia on the international stage is about to come true. But the honour…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":74152,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[563],"tags":[64,63,57543,57544,57541,596,57546,57542,85,57545],"class_list":["post-74151","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-football","tag-au","tag-australia","tag-deaf-olympics","tag-deaf-soccer","tag-deaflympics","tag-football","tag-how-athletes-are-funded","tag-ruby-miller","tag-sports","tag-sports-funding"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74151","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=74151"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/74151\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/74152"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=74151"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=74151"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/au\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=74151"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}