--- title: Amy Van Dyken-Rouen Responds to 'Cripple' Comments at Hotel description: Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken-Rouen was left "shaking" when she said a security guard at a Texas hotel referred to her as "a cripple." canonical: https://time.com/4364174/amy-van-dyken-rouen-cripple-comment/ author: TIME article:opinion: false article:content_tier: free article:published_time: 2016-06-10T15:03:30.000Z article:modified_time: 2026-04-13T09:02:42.587Z og:title: Olympian Amy Van Dyken-Rouen Responds to 'Cripple' Comment og:description: The gold medalist was paralyzed in 2004 og:url: https://time.com/4364174/amy-van-dyken-rouen-cripple-comment/ og:site_name: TIME og:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt180f362694e1b92b/69889742cf40a8631bc43915/amy-van-dyken-responds-cripple-comments.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 og:image:width: 3281 og:image:height: 1846 og:image:alt: New York Mets v Arizona Diamondbacks og:type: article twitter:card: summary_large_image twitter:title: Olympian Amy Van Dyken-Rouen Responds to 'Cripple' Comment twitter:description: The gold medalist was paralyzed in 2004 twitter:image: https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt180f362694e1b92b/69889742cf40a8631bc43915/amy-van-dyken-responds-cripple-comments.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=16:9 ---  # Olympian Amy Van Dyken-Rouen Responds to 'Cripple' Comment > Sponsored content. 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Worth Your Time is TIME's culture newsletter, published Tuesdays and Saturdays to 40,000 subscribers as of August 2026. #### Who writes TIME's culture recommendations? Culture editor Eliza Berman writes Worth Your Time, drawing on TIME's critics and culture desk. #### Is Worth Your Time free? Yes. It is a free newsletter available at time.com/newsletters. by [Scott Stump / TODAY.com](https://time.com/author/today-com/) ## Scott Stump / TODAY.com Jun 10, 2016 3:03 PM UTC  PHOENIX, AZ - JUNE 07: Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken-Rouen reacts after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the MLB game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Mets at Chase Field on June 7, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) PHOENIX, AZ - JUNE 07: Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken-Rouen reacts after throwing out the ceremonial first pitch before the MLB game between the Arizona Diamondbacks and the New York Mets at Chase Field on June 7, 2015 in Phoenix, Arizona. (Photo by Christian Petersen/Getty Images) Christian Petersen/Getty Images by [Scott Stump / TODAY.com](https://time.com/author/today-com/) ## Scott Stump / TODAY.com Jun 10, 2016 3:03 PM UTC Olympic gold medalist Amy Van Dyken-Rouen was left “shaking” on Wednesday when she said a security guard at a Texas hotel referred to her as “a cripple.” Officials at the Gaylord Texan Resort in Grapevine are apologizing to the former champion swimmer, who was paralyzed in an ATV accident in 2014, for an incident that occurred when she was returning to her room. “Today was brought by security back to my room and a hotel security guy called Bam Bam said ‘What’s going on here? Escorting the cripples now?!”’ Van Dyken-Rouen, 43, wrote on Instagram. “I’m shaking. I’m sorry my ♿️ buddies… [_Read the rest of the story on TODAY.com_](http://www.today.com/money/hotel-apologizes-amy-van-dyken-rouen-after-employee-calls-her-t97456?cid=par-sm-time)_._ ```json [{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","@id":"https://time.com/4364174/amy-van-dyken-rouen-cripple-comment/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https://time.com/4364174/amy-van-dyken-rouen-cripple-comment/"},"headline":"Olympian Amy Van Dyken-Rouen Responds to 'Cripple' Comment","datePublished":"2016-06-10T15:03:30.000Z","dateModified":"2026-04-13T09:02:42.587Z","description":"The gold medalist was paralyzed in 2004","url":"https://time.com/4364174/amy-van-dyken-rouen-cripple-comment/","keywords":["motto","News"],"thumbnailUrl":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt180f362694e1b92b/69889742cf40a8631bc43915/amy-van-dyken-responds-cripple-comments.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Scott Stump / TODAY.com"}],"articleSection":"","image":[{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://static.time.com/v3/assets/bltea6093859af6183b/blt180f362694e1b92b/69889742cf40a8631bc43915/amy-van-dyken-responds-cripple-comments.jpg?branch=production&width=1200&quality=75&auto=webp&crop=1200:675&height=675","width":1200,"height":675,"headline":"New York Mets v Arizona Diamondbacks","caption":"New York Mets v Arizona Diamondbacks","creditText":"Christian Petersen/Getty Images","representativeOfPage":true}],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"Time","url":"https://time.com/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https://time.com/images/logo.png","width":528,"height":156},"foundingDate":"March 3, 1923","sameAs":["https://www.facebook.com/time","https://www.instagram.com/time/?hl=en","https://twitter.com/time","https://www.pinterest.com/timemagazine"]}},{"@context":"https://schema.org","@type":"BreadcrumbList","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"item":{"@id":"/tag/motto/","name":"motto"}},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"item":{"@id":"https://time.com/4364174/amy-van-dyken-rouen-cripple-comment/","name":"Olympian Amy Van Dyken-Rouen Responds to 'Cripple' Comment"}}]}] ```