The deputies of the Honors Commission of the Costa Rican Legislative Assembly gave a positive opinion on file 24,558 to declare the parathlete Sherman Guity as a Distinguished Citizen. The project was voted on in substance and had the approval of the five members of the legislative body.
With the endorsement, the initiative goes to the Plenary, to be placed on the agenda and to be discussed and voted on in the two debates so that it becomes law of the Republic and the recognition is granted.
The proposal to declare Guity a Distinguished Citizen was presented by PUSC deputy María Marta Carballo, weeks after the athlete achieved two gold medals and two Paralympic records in Paris 2024.
Symbol of overcoming, resilience and national pride
“This proposal is based on Guity’s exceptional achievements in the sports field and his notable influence as a symbol of overcoming, resilience and national pride,” says the text of the initiative.
Guity suffered a car accident in 2017 that forced him to amputate one of his legs, when he was beginning a promising career in athletics. He did not give up, and continued fighting, now in para-athletics, leaving the country on high.
At the Tokyo Paralympic Games, held in 2021, he won the first gold medal for Costa Rica in the 200 meters T64 and also won a silver in the 100 meters T64. Three years later, in Paris, he won gold in both events, breaking records and confirming that he is the best in the world in that category. Now, he will be recognized as a Distinguished Citizen of the country by the highest power of the Republic.
Other decisions
In addition to the endorsement of the recognition for Sherman Guity, the Honors Commission made other decisions:
It approved declaring Mr. José Guillermo Malavassi Vargas, dean of the Autonomous University of Central America (UACA), as a Distinguished Citizen. “Don Guillermo has worked incessantly, and is full of valuable contributions to Costa Rican education and culture,” says the proposal.
It also ruled in favor of declaring journalist Rolando Angulo Zeledón as a Distinguished Citizen of the Nation. Angulo received the Pío Víquez award in 1980 and made many contributions to the country, such as “the struggle for the creation of the school of medicine, the creation of university radio, fighter for the creation and founder of the college of journalists, university professor, trainer of journalists, writer, announcer and humanist,” says the text. It will be the Plenary that put the files on the agenda to be voted on and that the recognition for both is already a fact.
