There was chaos during the men’s Paralympic swimming last night after an athlete was wrongly disqualified from an event for ‘breaking little known rule’.
Australian Ahmed Kelly had been competing in the men’s 150m medley SM3 heat yesterday (1 September) and came in second place behind his Aussie compatriot, Grant Patterson.
However, the athlete would later find himself facing disqualification from the event, and it was all to do with a misunderstanding over the type of swimming stroke he’d performed.
The athlete was wrongly disqualified from the event (Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
Kelly – who is missing both arms below the elbow and both legs below the knee – had performed butterfly stroke instead of the widely used front crawl during the freestyle leg of the event, which led to officials disqualifying the Paralympian.
Fortunately, Swimming Australia were able to quickly launch an appeal into Kelly’s disqualification, which led to the decision being overturned.
Fellow swimmer, Annabelle Williams, was later able to explain the confusion during a broadcast on Channel 9, revealing that Kelly was not in breach of rules by using a butterfly stroke during the freestyle leg.
“Now the good lawyer in me went to the rules and the definition of freestyle is that you can perform whatever you want, as long as it’s not backstroke or breaststroke,” she began.
“You can do whatever strokes you like; freestyle or double-arm butterfly. Ahmed had performed double-arm butterfly, and so I can’t understand why that rule seems to have been in breach.”
She then went on to clarify that Kelly had also performed all of his swimming strokes in the correct order, adding: “And secondly, swimming strokes in the incorrect order. He definitely didn’t do that.
Kelly was later reinstated and went on to compete in the final (MacNicol/Getty Images)
“There’s video footage of him swimming the first lap on his back, the second lap doing breaststroke, and the third lap the double-arm butterfly.
“That is absolutely permissible when you’re swimming freestyle.”
Kelly was later reinstated into the event and able to compete in the 150m individual medley final, where he would place second behind German swimmer, Josia Topf, and earning himself a silver medal. It was a successful event for Team Australia, as Patterson would also make it onto the medals podium after finishing in third place.
Kelly and Patterson’s performance means that Australia now has bagged 22 medals in the Paris Paralympics, leaving them in sixth place. China is currently leading the race with an impressive 71 medals – 33 of which are gold – while Great Britain currently sits in second, with a total of 43 medals.
Featured Image Credit: (MacNicol/Getty Images Adam Pretty/Getty Images)
Topics: Paralympics, Australia
