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Speaker 1: Growing up in Sydney, Saskia Newman fell in love with

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Speaker 1: football at the age of four. Now, at just twenty

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Speaker 1: two years old, she's been named the vice captain of

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Speaker 1: the Australian women's deaf football team. When Saskia was just

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Speaker 1: two years old, she received a cochlear implant in her

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Speaker 1: left ear. It was a newborn screening test that revealed

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Speaker 1: she had moderately severe to profound congenital sense and neural

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Speaker 1: hearing loss. Saskia spent her teenage years representing the Northern Tigers,

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Speaker 1: but along the way she was advocating for change, educating

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Speaker 1: players and referees on what the cochlear implant is and

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Speaker 1: just how it helps her to play to the best

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Speaker 1: of her abilities. Despite obstacles faced along the way, nothing

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Speaker 1: has stopped Saskia achieving her dreams on and off the field.

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Speaker 1: This weekend, she will help lead the women's deaf football

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Speaker 1: team as they play their first international game outside of

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Speaker 1: Australia in twenty years, and it's made even more special

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Speaker 1: as their game will be televised, acting as a doubleheader

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Speaker 1: with the US women's national team game. Saskia is also

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Speaker 1: in her second year of her postgraduate medical degree at

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Speaker 1: the Australian National University. My name is Sophie and I'm

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Speaker 1: a producer here at the Female Athlete Project. This week

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Speaker 1: Chloe caught up with Saskia as the Australian women's DEFF

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Speaker 1: football team touchdown in the US before their big match

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Speaker 1: this weekend. This is a heartwarming and insightful chat and

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Speaker 1: we hope you enjoy it.

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Speaker 2: Saskia, Welcome to the Female Athlete Project.

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Speaker 3: Thanks Chloe.

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Speaker 2: Hi everyone, can you tell us about Saskia as a

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Speaker 2: little kid, what we you like and how did you

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Speaker 2: find a love with sport and for football.

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Speaker 3: They started playing soccer when I was four years old,

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Speaker 3: I swollowing in my footsteps of my older brother who

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Speaker 3: was training for Limpfield Football Club, and my dad had

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Speaker 3: been coaching the two of us and teaching us how

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Speaker 3: to play and just learn all sports growing up, and

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Speaker 3: I just ended up loving it and wanted to give

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Speaker 3: everything a shot. I started playing in the midfield from

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Speaker 3: a young age and from there really enjoyed the game

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Speaker 3: and I enjoyed all sports at a young age. I

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Speaker 3: really enjoyed the freedom that sport gave me to excel

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Speaker 3: and to be competitive in a field. Where my hearing

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Speaker 3: didn't affect me, and for me with soccer, I was

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Speaker 3: able to play on the field and not have my

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Speaker 3: hearing loss affect me. It was a massive part of

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Speaker 3: me growing up as a child. Yeah, and I had

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Speaker 3: a lot of great coaches that supported me as a

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Speaker 3: young athlete to play to the best of my ability

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Speaker 3: and were always able to help look out for me

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Speaker 3: even though I had my hearing loss which meant that

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Speaker 3: I couldn't always hear on the field and I ended

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Speaker 3: up playing for Northern Tigers. Growing up, there was a

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Speaker 3: competition called North Harbor and they would scout girls. At

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Speaker 3: the time, I don't know if it still goes on,

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Speaker 3: but they would scout girls from this competition and you

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Speaker 3: would start playing in their skilled development program, which is

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Speaker 3: from where I started to develop my skills and them

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Speaker 3: playing the MPL League throughout high school.

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Speaker 2: And you're currently a part of the Australian Deaf football team.

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Speaker 2: When was your first exposure to that team?

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Speaker 3: So during COVID one of the coaches reached out to

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Speaker 3: me and asked if I was interested in playing. They'd

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Speaker 3: had I had a hearing loss and was playing football

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Speaker 3: as well. There was a training camp being advertised in

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Speaker 3: Canberra and I was really interested in coming along. I've

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Speaker 3: been at Unich a year, so it was quite convenient

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Speaker 3: for me to just pop in and see what it

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Speaker 3: was all about. So I went down and really enjoyed

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Speaker 3: my first training camp with the team. There was only

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Speaker 3: two other girls at the time and it was majority

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Speaker 3: a boys' training camp. To be included in that and

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Speaker 3: to be welcomed was an absolutely amazing experience. I remember

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Speaker 3: walking into the camp and going I've never seen so

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Speaker 3: many people with cochlear implants or hearing aids and hearing

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Speaker 3: loss in one space on a field together, having a

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Speaker 3: great time.

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Speaker 2: And growing up and leading up until that point, had

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Speaker 2: you faced many barriers in terms of being able to

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Speaker 2: access sport or access soccer.

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Speaker 3: I was able to participate in a lot of variety

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Speaker 3: of different sports, from para athletics competing in my category

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Speaker 3: as a hearing an athlete with hearing loss, and also

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Speaker 3: para swimming where I was competing as an athlete with

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Speaker 3: hearing loss, and it was a really inclusive space which

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Speaker 3: I really enjoyed meeting other young girls and boys who

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Speaker 3: also had different sorts of disabilities and being able to

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Speaker 3: celebrate our competitiveness and participation in sport together. I did

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Speaker 3: experience some barriers to participating in soccer and sport, in

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Speaker 3: particular not being able to communicate with the coach on

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Speaker 3: the sideline and receive instructions in the same way that

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Speaker 3: my hearing teammates would. That could sometimes be a barrier

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Speaker 3: to me improving in that moment during the game, but

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Speaker 3: I can always receive comments and feedback after the game

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Speaker 3: or at halftime. That was the way that we were

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Speaker 3: able to work around those challenges for me. Another time

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Speaker 3: where I would have experienced a barrier was discrimination in

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Speaker 3: terms of having a hearing loss. And I distinctly remember

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Speaker 3: a game when I was twelve years old and the

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Speaker 3: referee stopped the game at a free kick and asked

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Speaker 3: me if I was wearing jewelry on my ears and

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Speaker 3: to take that off, to take off my cochlear implant

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Speaker 3: and my hearing aid. And I remember being really upset

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Speaker 3: as a result of that comment that the referee made,

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Speaker 3: and as a result, we ended up speaking to the

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Speaker 3: manager and the referees and implemented some changes nationwide to

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Speaker 3: the referee training program where referees were able to learn

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Speaker 3: what hearing loss was, and what the cochlear implant looked

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Speaker 3: like and hearing aids looked like for young athletes who

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Speaker 3: may wear them on the field.

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Speaker 2: That's well first time. I'm really sorry that you went

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Speaker 2: through that experience, but it's quite powerful that you were

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Speaker 2: able to enact nationwide change off the back of that.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, it was an absolutely amazing experience to be a

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Speaker 3: part of, even though definitely a challenging experience for me

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Speaker 3: going through that. The following games after that and in

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Speaker 3: the following season, I would speak to the referee and

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Speaker 3: before the game and mention I have a hearing loss.

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Speaker 3: This is what my cochleer implant is. It's not a

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Speaker 3: piece of jewelry. And my manager was very supportive at

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Speaker 3: the time, so very thankful for the support I received then.

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Speaker 3: I think one of the other things that one of

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Speaker 3: my family helped me with is when you play sport

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Speaker 3: with a cochlear implant, you often find that the cochinerom

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Speaker 3: plant dislodges from the head a little bit, so it

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Speaker 3: loses the connection to be able to hear, which is

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Speaker 3: really important. So the magnet comes off the head of

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Speaker 3: the bone here, okay, And one of the simple solutions

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Speaker 3: was wearing a headband. Now, as an eight year old girl,

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Speaker 3: no one else is wearing a headband, and things have

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Speaker 3: suddenly changed since I was eight years old, and now

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Speaker 3: everybody often wears a headband or some sort of tape

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Speaker 3: to keep your hair in place. And at eight years old,

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Speaker 3: I remember being feeling really isolated by having to do that,

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Speaker 3: even though it was just a practical solution that was

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Speaker 3: suggested by my dad. And one of the things that

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Speaker 3: I later found out I didn't remember this at the time,

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Speaker 3: was that he spoke to all the parents of the team,

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Speaker 3: and each parent and team member went and got a

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Speaker 3: headband and we all started wearing them, oh, just to

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Speaker 3: help me get over the fear of being the only

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Speaker 3: one wearing the headband. So I think that's actually a

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Speaker 3: very heartwarming story to share, and yeah, very thankful to

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Speaker 3: the teammates and parents who supported me at the time

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Speaker 3: to make that happen for me.

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Speaker 2: That's such a beautiful story. And I'm even thinking, like

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Speaker 2: you mentioned now, headbands are so popular, Like you can't

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Speaker 2: even picture someone like Ellie Carpenter without a headband, right.

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Speaker 2: I'd love to quickly chat to you about the FIFA

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Speaker 2: Women's World Cup watching that with players like Ellie Carpenter,

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Speaker 2: but we saw Mackenzie Arnold actually was really a huge

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Speaker 2: advocate and talked about the fact that she was wearing

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Speaker 2: hearing aids. What does it feel like when you see

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Speaker 2: someone like that being represented on a global stage.

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Speaker 3: Yeah, So mckennie Arnold was absolutely a topic of discussion

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Speaker 3: amongst our Death Football Australia Woman's Chat. We were hoping

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Speaker 3: maybe Mackenzie would like to play for us. Yes, suddenly

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Speaker 3: reached McKenzie and it was an absolutely amazing experience to

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Speaker 3: see someone of her level of playing sport, at her level,

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Speaker 3: to be sharing her story of the challenges that she's

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Speaker 3: faced and the different experiences that she has. Now, when

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Speaker 3: we saw that article, it was amazing experience. We're all

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Speaker 3: reading this article going we didn't even know ye, and

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Speaker 3: it speaks to the fact that hearing loss is such

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Speaker 3: a silent disability. Often you wouldn't know that someone has

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Speaker 3: a hearing loss and you wouldn't know how you could

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Speaker 3: help or what sort of accommodations that might be appropriate

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Speaker 3: to help support that athlete to perform to their best,

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Speaker 3: to the best of their ability.

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Speaker 2: How does it feel now? For you that you get

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Speaker 2: to represent your country playing football.

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Speaker 3: It's absolutely a dream come true. I think every girl

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Speaker 3: growing up who plays soccer has probably had this stream

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Speaker 3: of playing for the Matildas or representing their country at

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Speaker 3: the highest level for football and say, suddenly a dream country.

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Speaker 3: And my family is really proud of me, and as

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Speaker 3: are my friends. Say very thankful for the support I've

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Speaker 3: received along the way.

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Speaker 2: Oh, it's so special. I don't know if our WiFi

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Speaker 2: is a little bit dodgy, so I'm getting like glimpses

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Speaker 2: of your face, but I can see your face like

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Speaker 2: light up as you're talking about it, which is really

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Speaker 2: really special. Can you chat to us about what happened

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Speaker 2: with the World Deaf Football Championships. You would do as

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Speaker 2: a team to travel to Malaysia last year to compete,

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Speaker 2: but there was a bit of a change last minute

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Speaker 2: with some funding. Can you give us a bit of

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Speaker 2: a rundown?

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Speaker 3: So the team was meant to compete at the World

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Speaker 3: Deaf Football Championships in Kuala Limpool last year. Unfortunately we

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Speaker 3: weren't able to go to Quolompt to compete due to

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Speaker 3: the lack of funding which was pulled quite last minute,

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Speaker 3: which meant that the team really disappointed. A lot of

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Speaker 3: us had to go and we're expecting to need to

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Speaker 3: plan leave and all of these sorts of things to

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Speaker 3: make the trip a reality, and not being able to

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Speaker 3: go on short notice due to a combination of a

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Speaker 3: lack of funding and lack of communication meant that the

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Speaker 3: team weren't able to develop together and we missed out

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Speaker 3: on our crucial, potentially first opportunity to play the United States.

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Speaker 3: They won and became World champions, but we've got the

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Speaker 3: opportunity to play them now this week, I think the

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Speaker 3: World Cup. It was sad to be missing the World Cup,

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Speaker 3: which was a great opportunity to develop as a team.

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Speaker 3: But I know that the team's more prepared now than

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Speaker 3: they were at the time, and we're more developed, we

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Speaker 3: have more players, and we're more ready to compete on

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Speaker 3: the international level now.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, you touched on the fact that you're there now,

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Speaker 2: so in Denval, I'm very thankful for your time because

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Speaker 2: you've had a massive day of travel, canceled flights, You've

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Speaker 2: had to go here, there, and everywhere to actually arrive

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Speaker 2: at your destination. So I'm very thankful that you've made

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Speaker 2: time to chat to US. But talk to us about

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Speaker 2: your game against the US this weekend. So we spoke

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Speaker 2: about it on our Wrap podcast. So it's going to

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Speaker 2: be two pm Saturday for you. For us back home

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Speaker 2: in Australia, it's going to be six am Sunday morning.

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Speaker 2: And I'm going to work with you to work out

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Speaker 2: a link for people back home to be able to

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Speaker 2: watch it. So hopefully I'll include that in the show

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Speaker 2: notes and in the social media. But chat to us

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Speaker 2: about this game against the US team, and it's going

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Speaker 2: to be played before the US women's national team as well.

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Speaker 3: The girls are absolutely so excited to be competing against

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Speaker 3: the USA team. We're actually staying in the same hotel

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Speaker 3: together at the moment, and we are all we haven't

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Speaker 3: quite met the USA team, but we know they're around

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Speaker 3: and we're absolutely excited to have our six training sessions

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Speaker 3: in the lead up to a training game against the

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Speaker 3: US which will be played on the Thursday. Then we'll

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Speaker 3: have some more training on Friday and then compete in

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Speaker 3: our game against the US on Saturday. And the girls

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Speaker 3: are very excited to come together as a team, learn

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Speaker 3: how to communicate on the field, learn our strengths and weaknesses,

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Speaker 3: and develop some tactical plays in order to compete against

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Speaker 3: the US. We know the US are an absolutely outstanding

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Speaker 3: team on deaf football level. They've won the World Championship,

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Speaker 3: they're undefeated for quite a number of games now, and

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Speaker 3: they have some players who play almost professionally or semi

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Speaker 3: professionally who have a lot of experience at an international

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Speaker 3: level in terms of JEFF competitions as well, with some

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Speaker 3: players having absolutely amazing statistics. So I think for our

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Speaker 3: team to get the opportunity to play against players who

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Speaker 3: are playing at that level is really special and I

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Speaker 3: think the girls are all really looking forward to it

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Speaker 3: and getting underway with training in preparation for the game.

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Speaker 3: What does it look like from an accessibility perspective, How

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Speaker 3: do the rules and regulations of the game differ, and

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Speaker 3: how do you communicate as a team with players who

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Speaker 3: have different levels of hearing loss. To comment first on

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Speaker 3: the different levels of hearing loss that the team have,

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Speaker 3: we have a number of players who do use sign

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Speaker 3: language or OSLAN in Australia, and we also have a

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Speaker 3: number of players who don't use sign language and instead

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Speaker 3: purely have cochlear implants or hearing aids, and some players

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Speaker 3: are able to do a mix of both, which is

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Speaker 3: amazing that they've learnt both OSLAN and how to use

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Speaker 3: their hearing aids the best of their ability. Now we

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Speaker 3: have an interpreter as part of our team who's helping

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Speaker 3: us to communicate within the team, to communicate across different channels,

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Speaker 3: from Osland to I guess spoken English and then backward

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Speaker 3: spoking English to Osland translating for us and working across

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Speaker 3: with our coaches, and our coaching staff includes a female

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Speaker 3: coach who does also use OSLAM. And in terms of

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Speaker 3: on the field, we use a lot of sign so

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Speaker 3: on the field, we use a lot of hand gestures

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Speaker 3: to communicate, whether it's say it's like a through ball

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Speaker 3: or bounce pass through ball or goes around. There's a

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Speaker 3: few ways that we can communicate using hand gestures. Often

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Speaker 3: it might be using your hand to gesture where you

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Speaker 3: want the ball, or that you signaling that you want

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Speaker 3: the ball at your feet or at your chest. And

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Speaker 3: these are sorts of things that we're going to be

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Speaker 3: working on in training over the coming days as well

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Speaker 3: as for how the game differs. So it's actually the

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Speaker 3: USA have written a very nice piece about this. So

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Speaker 3: the game only differs for the game of deaf football

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Speaker 3: differs in two important ways. One, the participants in the

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Speaker 3: sport must have a hearing loss. Okay, so it makes

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Speaker 3: makes a lot of sense. So the hearing loss requirement

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Speaker 3: that the athletes must have is fifty five decibels in

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Speaker 3: their better ear. So what this looks might look like

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Speaker 3: is maybe you have a total loss in your left ear. So,

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Speaker 3: for example myself, I have a cochlearan plant in my

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Speaker 3: left ear, which means I cannot hear out of my

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Speaker 3: left ear without my cochlear plant when I'm not wearing it.

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Speaker 3: And then for my right ear, I have a hearing

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Speaker 3: aid and my hearing loss sits at about fifty five

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Speaker 3: decibels in my right ear. To contextualize this for the

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Speaker 3: audience of hearing people, what fifty five decibels looks like

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Speaker 3: is quite loud speech, and there is a range of

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Speaker 3: different sounds and consonants and vowels that fall across that level.

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Speaker 3: So for someone with my level of hearing loss, you

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Speaker 3: might miss certain words or miss certain vowels. But if

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Speaker 3: you do have a total hearing loss, you won't be

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Speaker 3: able to hear any of those words and spoken language

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Speaker 3: at all. So that's the first important part of deaf football.

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Speaker 3: The second part is the referee uses a flag to

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Speaker 3: communicate the changes in the game, whether it's the lall's

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Speaker 3: gone out, pree kick, in addition to using the whistle,

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Speaker 3: So these are the only two changes. Is the use

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Speaker 3: of the whistle in conjunction with the flag to see

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Speaker 3: all the changes to the game. And apart from that,

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Speaker 3: the linesmen still have their flags, so that doesn't change

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Speaker 3: the game for the linesman's either. But I think one

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Speaker 3: of the other key changes, maybe not so much to

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Speaker 3: the rules, but to that nature of the game itself,

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Speaker 3: is the field is a lot quieter. You can't exactly

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Speaker 3: call out to your teammates. They won't hear the commands

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Speaker 3: like turn or bounce pass. That's not something that you

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Speaker 3: can call out to your teammates in a game of

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Speaker 3: deaf football. And you also can't hear the calls from

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Speaker 3: the sideline. You won't hear the coaches screaming out maybe

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Speaker 3: as much or shouting out instructions as much as maybe

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Speaker 3: a regular hearing game of football. Mate.

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Speaker 2: Yeah, and looking ahead to the weekend, thank you for

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Speaker 2: that breakdown, because it's so cool. We talk a lot

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Speaker 2: on our platforms that we always want to be educating

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Speaker 2: people so that they can understand sports that they might

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Speaker 2: not have watched before, they might not have understood how

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Speaker 2: they work, So thank you so much for sharing that

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Speaker 2: with us. Looking ahead to the weekend and your current

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Speaker 2: trip to the USA, how did this one go ahead

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Speaker 2: off the back of some funding issues last year? What

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Speaker 2: has now allowed you guys to get over there?

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Speaker 3: So our time in the US today is partly being

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Speaker 3: sponsored by the US team itself, so we're very fortunate

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Speaker 3: for the collaboration with the USA team to make this happen.

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Speaker 3: We've also had the chance to fund raise a bit more.

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Speaker 3: We've had more time to prepare for this competition in

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Speaker 3: terms of organizing funding. Players have been able to fundraise themselves.

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Speaker 3: A number of players fundraise a significant amount applied for

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Speaker 3: different grants from supporting organizations who have interests in hearing,

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Speaker 3: and also universities and local councils. So the community and

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Speaker 3: parents and the deaf community has really stepped up to

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Speaker 3: support us to go to the US this time and

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Speaker 3: to compete against the World champions. Unfortunately, we don't have

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Speaker 3: access to government funding which would make an absolute difference

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Speaker 3: to our ability to play and travel internationally. But I

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Speaker 3: would say that the difference between us not being able

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Speaker 3: to go last time and being able to travel this

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Speaker 3: year is the effort from the team and the community

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Speaker 3: support has been absolutely phenomenal. We're very grateful that a

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Speaker 3: lot of our players have received financial support to attend

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Speaker 3: the training.

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Speaker 2: I'm wishing you the very best of luck on the weekend, Saskia.

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Speaker 2: I'm so excited to make sure we find that link

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Speaker 2: so week and watch you guys and support you. Thank

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Speaker 2: you so much for your time today, and I hope

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Speaker 2: the jet lag isn't too bad that you manage to

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Speaker 2: get a little bit of sleep.

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Speaker 3: Deny, thank you so much for having me on the podcast. Chloe.

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Speaker 3: It's been an absolute honor to share my story with you.

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Speaker 2: Thanks so much for listening. If you got something out

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Speaker 2: of this episode, I would absolutely love it if you

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Speaker 2: could send it on to one person who you think

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Speaker 2: might enjoy it. Otherwise, subscribe, give us a review, and

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Speaker 2: make sure you follow us on Instagram at the Female

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Speaker 2: Athlete Project to stay up to date with podcast episodes,

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Speaker 2: merch drops, and of course news and stories about epic

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Speaker 2: female athletes.