Deaf-blind Paralympian quits Team USA when told she can't bring assistant to Tokyo

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Becca Meyers is a six-time Paralympic medalist with three golds from the 2016 Rio Games. She was expected to compete for up to four medals in Tokyo. Instead she's not going. After the 26-year-old deaf-blind swimmer was told she couldn't bring her mother and personal care assistant (PCA) Maria Meyers to help her navigate Tokyo and the Olympic facilities, Meyers informed Team USA that she was quitting the team

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Meyers suffers from Usher syndrome, a genetic disorder that left her deaf at birth. The disorder has also progressively eroded her eyesight. Her vision isn't completely gone, but it's been recently downgraded from the least-impaired Paralympic classification of S13 to the middle class of S12, the Post reports. Paralympians designated as S11 are completely blind or close to it. According to the Post she's the only one of 34 swimmers on the U.S. Paralympic teams who is both deaf and blind

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“We are dealing with unprecedented restrictions around what is possible on the ground in Tokyo. As it’s been widely reported, [the Tokyo Organizing Committee of the Olympic and Paralympic Games], at the direction of the government of Japan, is not permitting any personnel other than operational essential staff with roles related to the overall execution of the games, into the country.

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