Press Release - NEWS AROUND THE DEAF SPORTS WORLD

From: DEAFSPORTLAWSUIT - May 12, 2004

NEWS AROUND THE DEAF SPORTS WORLD

SUMMARIES OF THE STORIES BELOW

• The Superior Court in Washington to hear the case involving the disappearance and theft of the videofilm of the 37th CISS Congress and Deaflympic Summer Games held in 2001 in Rome, Italy.

• Russians will host IMAFD World Championships next week.

• How will many international sports and Olympic officials look up at Donalda Ammons as the CISS leader-anarchist at next week’s SportAccord Convention in Lausanne?

• 12 football teams to compete in Malaysia.

• The 2004 European Handball Championship cancelled; Hearing players on the 2003 USA Deaf Handball team.

MAY 17, 2004 COURT DATE FOR SHLIMOVICH, AMMONS AND KLIMOV

Washington, D.C., USA – The Superior Court of the District of Columbia is set to hear the Statement of Claim titled Felix Shlimovich, Plaintiff, against Vyacheslav Klimov and Donalda Ammons, Defendants, this coming Monday, May 17, 2004, at 9.00 a.m.

Originally, the case was scheduled to be heard on March 17, 2004, but the two defendants, through their telephone contacts, informed the Court that they both would not be available to appear at the hearing on that date.

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update39.htm
www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update40.htm

Until recently there had been an uncertainty about the status of a new hearing date primarily because of defendant Ammons' reluctance and dodging in agreeing to accept Court's Summons papers - both, via the mail service and personal process service.

Some two weeks ago, that is, on the April 28, 2004 afternoon hour, an incident related to this judicial matter happened at a classroom of the famed campus of Gallaudet University in Washington, D.C.

Because for the last three consecutive months - February, March and April, 2004, defendant Ammons had stubbornly been evasive in accepting the Summons papers sent out to her by the Office of the Clerk of the Court via the U.S. Certified Mail Service, plaintiff Shlimovich, with the official consent of the Court, had to utilize the service of two different personal servers.

A server by name K. in person approached defendant Ammons by attempting to serve the Summons to her, but Ammons again was very uncooperative by refusing to accept important papers from the Court.

Then, later on, a second server by name P. went directly to Ammons and finally hand delivered the Summons to her. However, Ammons, in turn, threw away the Court-produced document into the classroom floor. This event was witnessed by a score of college students attending Ammons' class presentation.

"The behavior by Ammons was an egregious and inappropriate one. In spite of her celebrated status as a Gallaudet University faculty member and top leader of the CISS/Deaflympics Committee, Ammons has shown her total disrespect to the judicial system of this great country by repeatedly evading to accept the Summons papers," commented one witness of the classroom incident scene.

It now remains to be seen whether defendants, especially Ammons, will appear at the Court premises in the morning of May 17, 2004.

IMAFD WORLD CHAMPIONSHIPS IN MOSCOW

Moscow, Russia – May 19-24, 2004 is the date of the 12th World Championships in Martial Arts, which will be jointly organized by the International Martial Arts Federation of the Deaf ( IMAFD ) and Russian sports organizations.

www.mclink.it/personal/MD4281/imafd.htm

It is expected that the coming championships will assemble the record number of nations and competitors ( both men and women ) in various weight classes of judo, karate, taekwondo and wushu-kung fu.

According to a report received from the IMAFD officials, the following nations are, so far, registered for the championships: Russia, Argentina, Austria, France, Greece, Israel, Japan, Korea, Lithuania, Sierra Leone, Senegal, Slovenia, Sweden, Switzerland and Taiwan.

2004 SPORTACCORD CONVENTION AND ANTICIPATED PRESENCE OF DEAF ANARCHIST

Lausanne, Switzerland – Next week, May 18-20, 2004, this city’s Palais de Beaulieu will be the venue of a major international gathering called SportAccord 2004 Convention. This will be the second consecutive time for the General Assembly of International Sports Federations ( acronym GAISF ) to organize such an important worldwide sports forum.

Last year it attracted nearly 930 delegates, including one deaf female participant, representing approximately 100 International Sports Federations which are affiliated to the GAISF.

It is expected that this year the Convention will attract a large number of sponsors, sports lawyers, journalists, architects and other specialists who will discuss the key issues facing the global sports industry.
The Convention will also include open conference sessions, workshops, seminars, scheduling networking opportunities and many exhibit booths.

To much delight of our deaf sports world, the Convention will for the first time have the presence of the sizeable CISS delegation.

According to reliable sources, about 28 persons – members of the CISS Executive Committee, CISS Technical Delegates in Deaflympic Summer Sports and their supporting staff – will be taking part in the event next week.

Among the SportAccord Convention participants will be several long-time, highly-competent and dedicated CISS Technical Directors in different sports – Bobby Skedsmo ( cycling ) and Reed Gershwind ( swimming and water polo ), both from the USA, Kjell Gunna ( basketball ) of Sweden, Josette Robinson ( tennis ) and Emmanuel Rossel ( football ), both from Belgium, Martin Bogard ( badminton ) of Great Britain and others. Senora Maria de Bendequz, an outstanding leader from Venezuela and first-ever woman elected as a member of the CISS Executive Committee, will also take part at the Convention. The Convention attendees will also witness the flamboyant interpreting work of the world-renown Gestuno (Internatonal Sign Language ) interpreters such as Mindy Brown of the Netherlands, Janne Lundberg of Sweden and Paul Heuston of Australia.

It will undoubtedly be an excellent learning experience for every CISS delegation member to socialize and network with prominent sports luminaries from various International Sports Federations and Olympic organizations at the Convention.

However, it will interesting to see as to how different international sports and Olympic leaders, administrators, journalists and legal experts taking part at the Convention will view and perceive the anticipated presence of the CISS leader-anarchist and well-known abuser of the CISS legal system, Dr. Donalda Ammons in this city. Lausanne has the Home Offices of many international sports organizations, including the IOC and Court of Arbitration for Sport ( CAS/TAS ).

www.tas-cas.org

Since the month of August, 2003 and to this minute, Dr. Ammons, the still unconstitutionally-elected CISS Secretary General/ Interim President, has been continuing to demonstrate her steadfast refusal to recognize, respect and accept the existence and jurisdiction of the IOC-created CAS/TAS. That is, to date, Ammons has willfully and intentionally been evading to agree to sign a document called Uniform Submission Agreement in order to enable Mr. Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas, the former Chairman of the CISS Awards Commission, to file his voluminous Statement of Claim against her and her accomplice, Mr. Jerald Jordan, before that Court.

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update36.html
www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update37.html

TWELVE FOOTBALL TEAMS TO VIE FOR THREE 2005 DEAFLYMPICS SPOTS

Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia – The Asia-Pacific Football Championship is scheduled to take place between May 21-30, 2004. This tournament will also be regarded as a qualification round for the 20th Deaflympic Games to be held this coming January, 2005, in Australia.

The CISS has allocated only four out of 16 spots for the region of Asia-Pacific ( one of these four spots was awarded to Australia, which as the Games host received an automatic berth ), for the final football round of the 2005 Deaflympic Games.

Twelve teams have already registered for the Championships: Malaysia, Iran ( the 2000 Asia-Pacific Games Champion ), Uzbekistan, Kazakhstan, Saudi Arabia, Taiwan, Japan, Korea, Australia, Kuwait, India and Oman.

It is, however, still unclear as to how and why the team from Oman, a country situated in Middle East, will be allowed to compete in spite of the fact that Oman is not an official CISS Nation-Member yet.

In addition, during the ongoing football tournament matches, the Malaysian Deaf Sports Federation will organize the two separate events: the Asia-Pacific Deaf Sports Confederation Congress ( May 22-23 ) and Asia-Pacific Athletics Championships ( May 27-29 ).

EUROPEAN HANDBALL CHAMPIONSHIP CANCELLED

Palermo, Italy – In the recent times the sport of handball has been experiencing a series of setbacks.

Last month Men’s European Championship with the planned participation of six national teams of Italy, Croatia, Germany, Denmark, Romania and Turkey was put off. No clear reason of such a cancellation was given yet by the leaders of the Italian Deaf Sports Federation ( FISS ).

Moreover, just several months ago it was learned that Women’s Handball was being excluded as a medal event on the program of the coming 2005 Deaflympic Games in Australia.

In addition, there was held an international four-team handball tournament called America Cup in Washington, D.C., USA, last summer. What was, however, unusual and troublesome was that one of the USA teams competing at the tournament included hearing and non-deaf players on its roster. This was done in direct and blatant violation of the CISS hearing test policy rule, that is, any athlete who has a hearing loss of at least 55 decibels, is eligible to take part at any CISS-sanctioned competition.

And the participation of hearing players on the USA team at the tournament happened in spite of the fact that among tournament’s visible spectators were the so-called CISS Secretary General and member of the CISS Legal Commission, Miss Ammons, and her hand-picked CISS Home Office Administrator and crony, Miss Tiffany Granfors.

www.deafsportlawsuit.com/update32.html

What is more, the Ammons-edited and controlled CISS e-News Magazine in its September 2003 issue provided extensive coverage of the America Cup tournament on its Magazine’s website. But, strangely, it chose not to report a single word in its coverage about the fact that hearing and non-deaf players were on the USA team.

www.ciss.org/enews/backissues.asp?ID=89

Finally, since October, 2002, the CISS administration has been unable to find a suitable candidate for the still-vacant CISS Technical Director-Handball position.

Thus, all these four negative factors – cancellation of the European Championship in Palermo, dropping out of Women’s event at the 2005 Deaflympic Games, inclusion of hearing players on the USA team and inability to appoint a new CISS TD – are viewed as a huge detriment to the worldwide development and publicity of the game of handball among the deaf people.

Sportingly Yours,

Rafael Pinkhasov Pinchas

www.deafsportlawsuit.com