WHS alum to compete in Tokyo goalball Paralympics

Wayland High School graduate Tyler Merren will represent the U.S.A. in goalball at the Tokyo Paralympics in August.

Merren will be one of 12 athletes to represent the United United States Association of Blind Athletes. It will be his fourth Paralympics visit. He participated in the Beijing games, won a bronze medal in Athens, and was part of the silver-winning goalball team in Rio de Janeiro.

Merren founded his own company, Revision Training LLC and he does speaking events and organization workshops. Merren said he is developing a fitness program for visually impaired people.

In late 2019, Merren and his family moved from Coral Springs, Fla., to Fort Wayne, Ind., the location of Turnstone Center, a U.S. Olympic and Paralympic training site, which is host to the USA Goalball Resident Athlete Training program. Merren participates in the residency program and follows a rigorous routine to prepare.

His training came to a halt in March 2020 when the COVID pandemic began. His fitness facility closed for about six weeks. In that time, he and his teammates trained remotely.

The facility reopened, training picked up, and the U.S. men’s team defeated Lithuania in the Trakai Tournament.

At 37, Merren is one of the oldest members of the team. Though he needs more recovery time than when he was younger, he is still one of the team’s top players

Merren and his wife, Leanne, have been married for 19 years. He has a stepson and three daughters.

Growing up in Wayland, Merren was diagnosed with an underdeveloped retina as a toddler. He discovered at the age of 14 that the text in his books were getting too hard to read and he was having to sit closer to the front of his classes. He was going blind and was diagnosed with retinitis pigmentosa.

Goalball is designed for athletes with a vision impairment. Participants compete in teams of three, and try to throw a ball that has bells embedded in it into the opponents’ goal. Because the players have different levels of visual impairment, they all wear blindfolds to even the field.

The Summer Paralympics will begin on Aug. 25 and end on Sept. 6.

— Coral Springs (Fla.) journalist Bryan Boggiano wrote much of the material for this report.