CBU students bridge cultures at Deaflympics in Japan

Riverside, Calif. (Dec. 4, 2025) – For a team of California Baptist University students and faculty, attending the Deaflympics in Japan last month was more than a sporting event — it was a lesson in culture and connection.

The CBU group consisted of seven undergraduates and six students in the Master of Science in Sport and Performance Psychology program and two faculty. The students were members of CBU’s American Sign Language Club.

Nearly 3,000 Deaf athletes from more than 100 countries competed at the 2025 Deaflympics, and the CBU group wasn’t there to just watch. It supported Team USA’s performance psychology team. When funding challenges arose, CBU’s sport and performance psychology graduate program and the Center for Deaf Studies partnered to sponsor the team, providing $4,000 for essential communication equipment.  

The connection between CBU and the Team USA’s performance psychology team began a year ago. Dr. Kristin Mauldin, director of the sport and performance psychology program, became involved in advocacy for athletes and sport psychology practitioners with disabilities through the Adaptive Sport and Physical Activity Special Interest Group, part of the Association for Applied Sport Psychology. Two of the group’s members are part of the Deaf community and the first sport psychology team to join the Deaflympics.

The collaboration opened the door for the CBU group to attend competitions, meet members of Team USA’s performance psychology team and experience both Deaf and Japanese cultures. 

“They seemed to gain a deeper appreciation for the challenges Deaf athletes face, the resilience they demonstrate in the face of these challenges,” Mauldin said. “It also exposed them to a group of athletes who very much need the services of mental performance consultants and yet have received almost none up until now.”

Although many of the Deaf people used sign language other than ASL, the CBU team could usually determine what was being said through the conversation’s context or Google Translate, said Dr. Daniel Blair, director of the Center for Deaf Studies.

“The most memorable part of this experience are the images in my mind of our students interacting with Deaf people, gradually gaining confidence that, when it comes to communicating, where there is a will there is a way,” Blair said.

For Hannah Ramos, an exercise science junior, a highlight was getting outside her comfort zone at a men's basketball game. She challenged herself to sit by people she didn’t know in hopes of meeting others. As the evening went along, she met people from Australia, Sri Lanka, Jordan and Japan.

“What was most memorable was being able to learn all of their countries’ sign languages while also teaching them American Sign Language,” Ramos said. “It was fascinating to see how the deaf and hearing worlds can intertwine without requiring complete fluency in each other’s languages.” 

Ramos wants to become an occupational therapist.

“Being paired with our sports psychology program allowed us to connect with Team USA’s sports psych team. I had the privilege of speaking with them and asking a few questions I had about Deaf sports,” she said.

Jazymn Sudbrook, in the Master of Science in Sport and Performance Psychology program, was excited to explore a demographic — the Deaf community ­— that she had not observed yet in the program.

“I was also amazed at how well the team sports communicated with each other. Team sport is so reliant on communication, and from a sports psych lens this was interesting to observe. They have to rely on other forms of communication like written and non-verbal to communicate with one another,” she said.

Megan Chou, a biology junior, wanted to go on this trip to experience cross-cultural engagement and gain a greater worldview understanding. Although she said she was not confident in communicating with Deaf people, she became friends with two Deaf women and shared her testimony through ASL.

“Challenging yourself with doing something out of your comfort zone is how you grow and learn,” Chou said. “God has so much more He wants to show us, and we just need to walk with open hands to whatever He has to show us.”