\n Sophie Dacombe, an 18-year-old footballer from Eaglescliffe, played every match as part of the Great Britain Deaf Women\u2019s Football team at the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics, held last month in Fukushima, Japan.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “I would hope that I would stand a good chance of being selected.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It was amazing and different to anything I have ever experienced before.\n<\/p>\n
\n “It was a huge relief to take third place.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Sophie Dacombe, who played a key role in helping the Great Britain Deaf Women\u2019s Football team secure a bronze medal at the Tokyo 2025 Deaflympics in Fukushima, Japan. (Image: Supplied)\n<\/p>\n
\n The bronze medal adds to a growing list of achievements for Ms Dacombe, who has moderate to severe bilateral hearing loss.\n<\/p>\n
\n She first discovered deaf football three years ago and now plays for Norton Ladies FC and has represented the England Deaf Ladies team.\n<\/p>\n
\n Her debut for England Deaf Ladies came in a friendly at just 15 years old, and in 2024, she helped Great Britain qualify for the Deaflympics by defeating Poland Deaf Women at Hanley Town FC.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sophie, who is studying A levels at Bede Sixth Form College in Billingham, said: “Playing at this level has opened-up opportunities that I might not otherwise have had.”\n<\/p>\n
\n She explained one of the key differences in deaf football: “If you wear hearing aids, you have to take them off to put everyone on an equal playing field.”\n<\/p>\n
\n With hearing aids removed, players rely on visual cues, including the referee\u2019s flag to start and stop play, and must use alternative communication methods on the pitch.\n<\/p>\n
\n The team, which is self-funded, raised the money needed to travel to Tokyo, where they competed against teams from the United States, Japan, Australia, and Kenya.\n<\/p>\n
\n Despite the tough competition, Sophie was hopeful from the outset.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “With just a small number of countries in the competition we hoped that we could get a medal.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Standing on the podium at J-Village Stadium in Fukushima, she and her teammates marked a significant achievement.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sophie said: “It was amazing and different to anything I have ever experienced before.”\n<\/p>\n
\n Although she felt a silver medal was within reach, she was proud of the team\u2019s effort and the result.\n<\/p>\n
\n Back home, she is balancing her sporting success with studies in PE, politics, and religion, philosophy and ethics at Bede Sixth Form College.\n<\/p>\n
\n Sophie is part of the college\u2019s Institute of Sport and Education, which supports promising athletes in combining academic and athletic development.\n<\/p>\n
\n She also plays for the Bede Women\u2019s Football Academy, in partnership with Durham Women\u2019s Football Club.\n<\/p>\n
\n Her ambitions are already focused on the road ahead.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said she is aiming for the 2027 World Deaf Football Championships in Australia and is even considering the 2029 Summer Deaflympics in Athens.\n<\/p>\n
\n For Sophie deaf football has opened up new pathways in the sport.\n<\/p>\n
\n She said: “Playing at this level has opened-up opportunities that I might not otherwise have had.”\n<\/p>\n
\n She is now determined to build on her success and continue representing her country on the world stage.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Sophie Dacombe, an 18-year-old footballer from Eaglescliffe, played every match as part of the Great Britain Deaf Women\u2019s…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":681958,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5018,3,4],"tags":[748,393,4884,1144,712,16,15,1764],"class_list":{"0":"post-681957","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-britain","8":"category-uk","9":"category-united-kingdom","10":"tag-britain","11":"tag-england","12":"tag-great-britain","13":"tag-northern-ireland","14":"tag-scotland","15":"tag-uk","16":"tag-united-kingdom","17":"tag-wales"},"share_on_mastodon":{"url":"https:\/\/pubeurope.com\/@uk\/115858920199686316","error":""},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681957","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=681957"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/681957\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/681958"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=681957"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=681957"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.europesays.com\/uk\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=681957"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}