Sports
Victoria Arlen 'Heartbroken' After Exclusion from Swimming Championships
Swimmer Victoria Arlen, 18, of Exeter, recently won gold medal.
Exeter's Victoria Arlen, a gold medal-winning Paralympic swimmer, said she's "heartbroken" after being ruled ineligible for the upcoming World Swimming Championships in Montreal, Canada.
Arlen, 18, won a gold medal and three silvers in the 2012 London Paralympics.
She was scheduled to compete in the World Swimming Championships this month, but the International Paralympic Committee ruled Arlen is not disabled enough, according to the BBC.
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Arlen is in a wheelchair after suffering from the spinal cord disease transverse myelitis.
"I'm so heartbroken," Arlen wrote in a Facebook post. "To have trained so hard this past year and come so far only to be humiliated and targeted by the IPC for reasons unknown baffles me."
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U.S. Sens. Jeanne Shaheen, D-NH, and Kelly Ayotte, R-NH, sent a letter to the International Paralympic Committee asking it to reverse the decision.
The IPC said a medical report failed to "provide sufficient evidence of an eligible impairment leading to permanent or verifiable activity limitation—which is required under the IPC Swimming Classification rules and regulations," the BBC reported.
"Being penalized for maybe having a glimmer of hope of one day being able to walk again is beyond sad," she said. "What message are we giving the world when we don't encourage hope for disabled individuals?"
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