Maryland Governor Larry Hogan has issued Maryland Paralympian Becca Meyers a governor's citation after she was forced to withdraw from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, and has signed an executive order to make every July Visibility Culture and Achievements Month in the state.
Meyers, from Baltimore, withdrew from the Olympics after the United States Olympic & Paralympic Committee denied her bringing her mother with her to Japan to compete as a swimmer. Meyers is deaf and blind, and her mother also serves as her personal care assistant.
"I've had to make the gut-wrenching decision to withdraw from the Tokyo 2020 Paralympics. I'm angry, I'm disappointed, but most of all, I'm sad to not be representing my country," Meyers wrote on Twitter last week.
Meyers says the Committee offered her a personal care assistant, but that it would be the same one being provided for 33 other Paralympic swimmers.
Hogan says he reached out to the USOPC. "Becca deserved to be able to compete. And while we're all so disappointed for her, I got the chance to tell her, just a moment before this started, that I'm unbelievably proud of her for having the courage to speak up and to speak out about this injustice. Aren't you proud of her?"
Meyers previously competed in the London 2012 and Rio 2016 Paralympic Games, winning six medals.
Source: WJZ