{"id":249722,"date":"2021-07-23T16:38:57","date_gmt":"2021-07-23T21:38:57","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.liveaction.org\/news\/?p=249722"},"modified":"2021-07-23T10:43:53","modified_gmt":"2021-07-23T15:43:53","slug":"deaf-blind-swimmer-paralympic-withdraws","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/archive.liveaction.org\/news\/deaf-blind-swimmer-paralympic-withdraws\/","title":{"rendered":"OUTRAGE: Deaf-blind Paralympian withdraws from games after Committee refuses to let her bring aide"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Becca Meyers, a star swimmer for the United States Paralympic Team, has won multiple medals in both the 2012 London and 2016 Rio de Janeiro Paralympic Games. Meyers, who is deaf and blind, has also received Best Female Athlete with a Disability ESPY Awards in two separate years, and has medaled at the Deaflympics as well. Yet she won’t be competing at this year’s Olympic Games in Tokyo, because she’s been denied the ability to bring an aide to help her navigate the Olympic Village.<\/p>\n

Meyers, who has a genetic disorder called Usher syndrome, has been deaf since birth, and she also steadily lost her vision due to a disease called retinitis pigmentosa (RP). Her mother, therefore, serves as a personal care assistant (PCA), and Meyers had expected to be able to take her mother to help guide her through the Paralympics<\/a>. But that straightforward and necessary request was denied, so Meyers felt she had no other choice: she withdrew from Team USA.<\/p>\n

The Washington Post profiled her situation<\/a>, starting with a terrifying experience she had in Rio de Janeiro in 2016. Frustrated, scared, and starving, Meyers had to be rescued by her parents because she wasn’t able to find her way to the dining area for athletes. She vowed she would never put herself in a situation like that again, but without a PCA, she would have no choice. She would either have to risk having that nightmare experience again or drop out.<\/p>\n

\u201cI would love to go to Tokyo,\u201d Meyers told the Washington Post. \u201cSwimming has given me my identity as a person. I\u2019ve always been Becca the Swimmer Girl. I haven\u2019t taken this lightly. This has been very difficult for me. [But] I need to say something to effect change, because this can\u2019t go on any longer.\u201d<\/p>\n