Paralympians are to be paid the same as Olympians for winning medals for the first time in history. Efforts to change the fees paid to Paralympians began in September 2018, the <a href="https://www.paralympic.org/news/paralympians-earn-equal-payouts-olympians-usa">International Paralympic Committee</a> reports, and such changes were first applied to the 2018 Winter Olympics in South Korea - but this is the first time they will have been a part of the main event. United States Olympic Committee CEO Sarah Hirshland said in a <a href="https://www.paralympic.org/news/paralympians-earn-equal-payouts-olympians-usa" target="_blank" rel="noopener">press statement</a> about the decision: "Paralympians are an integral part of our athlete community and we need to ensure we're appropriately rewarding their accomplishments. "Our financial investment in U.S. Paralympics and the athletes we serve is at an all-time high, but this was one area where a discrepancy existed in our funding model that we felt needed to change." Under the new rules, athletes will receive $37,500 for a gold medal, $22,500 for silver, and $15,000 for bronze. To put the magnitude of this change into context, in the past, Paralympians received $7,500 for gold, $5,250 for silver, and $3,750 for bronze. <img class="wp-image-1263119734" src="https://img.vt.co/2021/07/Paralympics-1.jpg" alt="A poster for the Paralympic Games." width="623" height="500" />[[imagecaption|| Credit: Alamy / David Warren]] However, despite this huge step forward being taken for Paralympic athletes, the Tokyo 2020 games have not been without controversy for them. Last week, deaf-blind Paralympian Becca Meyers was <a href="https://vt.co/news/us/deaf-blind-paralympian-quits-team-usa-after-being-denied-essential-accommodation">forced to pull out of this year's games</a> because she was unable to bring her own care assistant. Becca Meyers, 26, a three-time gold medalist, made the revelation on Tuesday, July 20, on Instagram. "I'm angry, I'm disappointed, but most of all, I'm sad to not be representing my country," she said in a statement. "The USOPC has denied a reasonable & essential accommodation for me, as a deaf-blind athlete, to be able to compete in Tokyo, telling me repeatedly that I do not need a Personal Care Assistant (PCA) 'who I trust' because there will be a single PCA on staff that is available to assist me and 33 other Paralympic swimmers, 9 of whom are also visually impaired." [[instagramwidget||https://www.instagram.com/p/CRjCK1JAxVF/]] The athlete then explained that she has previously brought her mother, who is her care assistant, to every international meet that she has attended since 2017. She explained that while she understood that are limits on the number of people who can attend the games because of the ongoing pandemic, she said that having her mother there was "essential" to her care. <a href="https://www.espn.co.uk/olympics/story/_/id/31848779/decorated-deaf-blind-swimmer-becca-meyers-denied-personal-care-assistant-withdraws-tokyo-paralympics">ESPN</a> reports that there will be just one personal care assistant available to help the 34 athletes on the US Paralympic swimming team. <h6>Featured image credit: Alamy / WENN Rights Ltd</h6>

Paralympians will now be paid the same as Olympians for winning medals

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