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Swimmer who withdrew from Paralympics after being denied medical accommodation has Central Pa. ties

Before Becca Meyers qualified for the 2020 Paralympics, she earned six medals at the last two Paralympics. She also swam for F&M College in 2015 and 2016.

LANCASTER, Pa. — A 26-year-old Paralympic swimmer withdrew from the Tokyo Games on Tuesday after being denied a Personal Care Assistant (PCA).

Before Becca Meyers qualified for the 2020 Paralympics, she earned six medals at the last two Paralympics in London and Rio.

She also swam for F&M College in 2015 and 2016.

Meyers has Usher Syndrome, which causes deafness and progressive sight loss.

Her former coach, F&M head swimming coach Ben Delia, said Meyers had a few adaptations at meets. For example, instead of starting events at the sound of a buzzer or horn, a light was placed at her feet to alert her to the start. Otherwise, her training wasn’t much different from other team members’.

“In many ways it’s the same. It’s each individual swimmer pushing themselves, trying to be their best. In Becca’s case she’s one of the hardest workers I’ve ever coached,” Delia said.

When traveling internationally, Meyers’ mother acts as her PCA to help navigate new surroundings, like the Olympic Village in Tokyo.

But amid drastic COVID restrictions, the U.S. Olympic and Paralympic Committee (USOPC) told Meyers she couldn’t bring a PCA.

Meyers made the announcement she was pulling out of the Games in a “gut-wrenching” announcement on Twitter.

Disability rights advocates quickly condemned USOPC’s decision.

“Every single athlete going there has some kind of assistive device to help them either with mobility or hearing, so this denying her that assistive device,” said Sherri Landis, executive director of the Arc of Pennsylvania. “This is not a level playing field anymore. Now they’re choosing which disability has the right to their supportive device, whatever that looks like.”

Meyers wrote that she had trained five years for the 2020 Paralympics and was deeply disappointed not to go, but that she was “speaking up for future generations of Paralympic athletes.”

Having firsthand knowledge of how much swimming means to Becca and how much effort and time she’s put into it, to have her be forced into this terrible decision to pull out of the game, so close to it, is heartbreaking,” Delia said.

USOPC wrote in a statement,

“The decisions we've made on behalf of the team have not been easy, and we are heartbroken for athletes who are unable to have their previous support resources available.”

The Paralympics run Aug. 24 to Sept. 5.

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