Meyers Is First To Speak Out After USOPC Denies 'Reasonable And Essential' Accommodation; Brannigans Turn To Fund-Raising To Get Coach/Supervisor To Tokyo

By Doug Binder, DyeStat Editor

When Becca Meyers posted Tuesday on Twitter that she was reluctantly withdrawing from the U.S. Paralympic swim team because her Personal Care Assistant had been denied approval to travel with her, it touched a nerve. 

The family of Mikey Brannigan knows exactly what Meyers is talking about. 

"I read her statement and it is word for word what we're going through (too)," said Edie Brannigan, the mother of the autistic Paralympian distance runner.

"I couldn't believe it when I saw it. It was the first time anybody has ever spoken up. But it's a collective experience."

Brannigan thought only the athletes with T-20 classifications, intellectual disabilities, were facing the problem.

Meyers, a swimmer, is deaf and blind. Her mother has been on hand to assist her for every international competition she's attended since 2017. 

On Saturday, the Brannigans learned that Mikey's coach and trusted mentor, Sonja Robinson, was not selected for the USPOC's travel staff. 

It left the family in the same situation as Meyers.  

"If Sonja's not going, Mikey's not going," Edie Brannigan said. "She's been with him for five years. Sonja is a mentor, gives him structure, protects him, is his supervisor, and conducts his training."

On Monday, the Brannigans began a Go Fund Me page to try and raise $15,000 to send Sonja to Tokyo, where she could have access to Mikey on the training grounds and at his race. 

Within 24 hours, the donations flowing in had raised more than half of the money. 

So it's a good chance that Robinson will be on her way – and that Mikey will be able to compete. 

"Mikey is just a big, fat heart walking around," his mom said. "People love him. The support he gets makes me want to cry. It's been a lifetime of rejection in every which way, but he has a community of supporters who come out and say 'we support you.'"

The Brannigans have real concerns over sending their son, who is the reigning Paralympic T-20 gold medalist in the 1,500 but has the mental function of a 6-to-11-year old. 

"Every single internatoinal race he's run, in London, Dubai, Doha, Rio and Ireland, Kevin (his dad) and or Sonja have been there for all of them," Edie Brannigan said. "This would be his first time without one of us. There are no spectators allowed (in Tokyo), so if we (parents) went, we'd have no access to him."

The USOPC is sending a chaperone for the T-20 athletes. Rosalyn Clark, a 1976 Olympic medalist, was selected to go and will be there for her daughter, Breanna, an autistic athlete who competes in the 400 meters. 

"She understands, and she gets it," Edie said of Clark. "But every kid is different. Mikey's an escape artist. They all have different issues. Don't get me wrong, it's great that she gets to go."

Theoretically, Clark will be the one who monitors Brannigan inside the athlete's village. 

Likewise, Meyers acknowledged that a single Personal Care Assistant would be in charge of 33 swimmers, nine of whom are visually impaired. 

The issue is having someone there that the athlete trusts and is familiar with. 

"We kind of believed all along that Sonja would be able to go," Edie Brannigan said. "Word came down just two or three days ago that she had been denied."

In 2015 at the Parapan American Games in Toronto, Mikey won the gold in the 1,500 meters. He was staying in the athlete village, which had security. But he walked out and roamed the city by himself for six hours. 

"Can you imagine if that happened in Tokyo?" Edie asked. 

Fortunately for Mikey, who rose to popularity in high school at Northport NY on Long Island, he has a national profile and is an inspiration to families across the country. It appears that the money to send Robinson will be raised. 

But the USOPC's unwillingness to provide what Meyers called a "reasonable and essential accomodation for me" is an issue that that goes deeper than one trip to Japan for trusted helpers of disabled athletes. 

For the Brannigans, dealings with the USOPC have been strained for years. The family hired an attorney to conduct its communication with the organization after years of frustration. 

"We've always felt that we did not have real support from (the USOPC)," Edie said. "We've always felt like we were fighting them."

She is emboldened to know that she's not alone. 

"In 2021, why as a disabled person am I still fighting for my rights?" Meyers wrote in her statement. "I'm speaking up for future generations of Paralympic athletes in hope that they never have to experience the pain that I've been through. Enough is enough."