Open Mike: Honor Lives Forever
At 10h44, on March 24, 2025 • By Mike Tanner, USTA Executive Vice President et CEO
Yesterday I watched the video of the honor walk for Hunter Myers, and it is the most emotionally excruciating and beautiful thing I have ever seen. I do not think anyone who has viewed it will ever forget it. It is that powerful.
An honor walk is a ceremonial event to commemorate a patient whose organs are about to be donated. Hunter, who would shortly be removed from the life support apparatus that kept him breathing after his tragic accident at The Meadows last week, was an organ donor. He would die but, in so doing, would help keep others alive. At the family’s request, Chris Gooden, the track’s incredible photographer and videographer, filmed Hunter’s loved ones saying goodbye to him and captured the incredible show of support by family, friends, horsepeople, drivers in their racing colors, and hospital employees who lined the hallways as the gurney carrying Hunter, his colors lain atop his body, was wheeled toward the operating room where his organs would be harvested. Chris posted the footage on social media over the weekend, and it quickly went viral.
