CNN —For David Smith, playing the sport he loves has come with adaptations. Smith was born with severe hearing loss in both of his ears and relies on lip-reading to understand what his volleyball teammates and coaches are saying. But his disability comes with its own unique set of challenges, one which Smith describes as “hard work. Smith began playing volleyball aged 14, initially as a summertime hobby outside of his regular sporting passion: Soccer. Speraw describes discovering Smith as like “finding a diamond in a rough.” He also said that Smith’s disability never came into play.

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Persons: David Smith, Smith, David, ” Smith, “ I’ve, …, Olympics.com, John Speraw, Speraw, ” Speraw, Andrej Isakovic, “, ”, “ You’re Organizations: CNN, USA, Paris Olympics, University of California, US, volleyball, Paris Games, Japan Locations: Rio, Irvine, Speraw, Argentina, AFP, Paris, Poland