Dumbest Ruling Ever: Shot Putter Sets World Record At The Paralympics, Gets Gold Medal Taken Away Because He Was 3 Minutes Late
[Yahoo] - That was until a referee disqualified him from the event for arriving three minutes late. The International Paralympics Committee (IPC) defended the decision, which has drawn scorn on social media.
Zolkefli competed in the shot put in the F20 classification for intellectual impairment. He was three minutes late to the event but was allowed to compete because he had a "logical" reason for being late, an IPC spokesman said via CNN.
A referee later determined he had no "justifiable reason" and stripped him of the medal.
The organization said the appeals by the three were thrown out based on the "Failure to Report to the Call Room" rule. It requires athletes to be present in the call room before their event at the time published on the schedule. If they are not present at the required time, they will be listed as DNS (did not start).
The three were able to compete under protest per rule. The evidence was later reviewed and they were found to have not reported on time, per World Para Athletics.
Oh what the fuck is this? This is the dumbest ruling I've ever seen and I'm someone who is always early. Three minutes? We're talking about three minutes late for a sporting event. How about all the times sporting events start late? Can I strip them of the results and money? Here's the real dumb thing. They LET him compete. How do you change the ruling after the fact? We're not talking about cheating. We're not talking about steroids or lying or anything like that. We're talking about being 3 minutes late to an event where you set the gold medal. That doesn't change the outcome of the event. It's not like he forgot about the event and did it a day later. Three minutes? Fuck outta here World Para Athletics.
What really bothers me with this sort of stuff is the change of ruling. How do you investigate someone after the fact they were given the right to compete. Again, if it was steroids or lying or cheating. Sure by all means. But we're talking about showing up 3 minutes late? How does anyone care about that enough to strip a gold medal? I never thought I'd be riled up about the Paralympics but here we are. In my eyes he won the gold medal and I won't believe the bullshit ruling ever.