Absolutely unolympic. Mentally impaired guy shows up to Paralympic shot put 3 minutes late, wins gold, is DQd for being late

The amount of times I've seen 100m runners who have a false start cry foul about some noise or random interference and be re-instated then I would think the miscommunication argument when 3 people are late for the call room feels plausible and should be allowed to continue

Though it is true that when you start tweaking rules it gets messy quickly so would have to know about the specific circumstances

I get this argument, but in that case, why not disqualify him right away? Makes a pretty awkward situation now for the guy who won gold after watching someone else throw farther than him.

Why dont project the agression towards the Malaysia delegation that did not help their mentally impaired athlete?

If he has a less impaired brother, perhaps they can start a running website...

dumbassMF wrote:

If he has a less impaired brother, perhaps they can start a running website...

*more

haha YOYO wrote:

I do not want to live in a world where Rojo makes the rules.

We life in a forum where Rojo makes the rules.

I wish we get some outrage on social media for us keyboard worriers.

Ive been watching paralympics and still trying to figure out how many actual divisions there are.

Some of these events are a real chore to determine what malady some of these athletes have.

Sitting volleyball. everyone plays but can't get off their butt, but right after they win a point the team stands, hugs each other and then sits again ???????

There is a difference between a blind or deaf athlete and one who is cognitively impaired. Imagine trying to navigate a foreign country in a language you may not speak when you require assistance to get by in your home country. I agree that this DQ seems ridiculous.

thoughtsfailure wrote:

You break the rules, you are DISQUALIFIED. Sorry. It doesn't matter he is mentally impaired, everyone else in the competition is in the same category but they all made it on time.

It's the PARALYMPICS. Blind people make it to their competitions on time, deaf people make it to their competitions on time, people without arms or legs make it on time.

So then why not scratch him before he bothers to go through the whole competition? Notice the Paralympics also dropped the ball not noticing he missed the time.

Flagpole wrote:

thoughtsfailure wrote:

You break the rules, you are DISQUALIFIED. Sorry. It doesn't matter he is mentally impaired, everyone else in the competition is in the same category but they all made it on time.

It's the PARALYMPICS. Blind people make it to their competitions on time, deaf people make it to their competitions on time, people without arms or legs make it on time.

^This is correct. I understand Rojo's kneejerk reaction here, and I feel bad for the guy, but rules are rules. All the other athletes were in his same category.

I don’t know the specifics, but I would assume there are handlers and staff that are responsible for helping mentally impaired athletes as they jump through the necessary hoops to get to and from events. If anyone is to blame, it should be them, not him.

These athletes had their normal support people restricted due to Covid regulations.

A three time gold medalist swimmer who is deaf and blind withdrew because her mother was not allowed to accompany her to the games. These are the people who would be most concerned to have them at the right place at the right time.

https://www.usnews.com/news/sports/articles/2021-07-26/maryland-gov-honors-swimmer-who-withdrew-from-paralympics

I love the 'rules are rules' sentiment ...

They're rules until they're not. Rules are socially constructed and contractual in nature: when we no longer need them, we change them. This is a case where this can be changed retroactively, which is done all of the time.

Further, I live in Colorado where there are basically zero police officers on the road. There are cars driving 15-30mph over the speed limit constant, tail gaiting, no signals, reckless driving. Rules are rules, but only if someone is there to enforce them; so now we've introduced a conditional statement which negates the black and white nature of your comment that 'rules are rules'. If these roads were policed as heavily as say, Ferguson, there'd be quite a few people with revoked drivers licenses, but oh wait, there's another condition: these people would hire attorneys and get out of it. So another condition: rules are rules only if you get caught and only if you do not have well paid advocates who have tacit knowledge of how to overturn those rules. We could keep going. Point is, rules aren't rules. They're enforced where and where there are people with power who want to use that power and when there are a lack of advocates with tacit knowledge of the system. I'm going to bet that someone mentally challenged lacks those advocates. It's not a coincidence that those with power to enforce rules settle on enforcing them on people who are most likely to not have the resources to push back and may already be in outgroups.

Yeah a sad story but what about Coleman's nightly ventures? Are we giving this guy a pass for what's the equivalent of a whereabouts failure because of his issues?

This isn't a guy coming to fix your plumbing. He's an Olympic athlete at the Olympics.

I wish more speeders were given tickets. Cities would make sh!t tons of money to hire more enforcers who will generate even more money.

But it comes down to politics.

You're not wrong but its politics. This guy doesn't have the billions to corrupt sport like the successful do.

God imagine being the ref who DQ'd him. Wish it was me. The power and authority I wield to DQ a gold medalist would give me a hard on no cap.

I get there are rules, but this is like losing your license for going one mph over speed limit.

Make him miss one attempt, but this seems Draconian.

The official did the correct thing to DQ him and allow him to compete under protest. Whoever evaluated the protest should have considered that the Covid protocols did not allow the people that normally help these athletes attend and awarded him the medal.

If this were a normal year, DQ 100%, you let people start showing up three minutes late than no one has to be on time anymore, you just have to get there within three minutes.

I assume World Athletics rules apply here. That allows the Call Room Referee to exercise discretion, such as in extenuating circumstance. It is unclear if such circumstances existed - and what consideration was given to them. You would think this decision could be explained by officials.

Failure to Report to the Call Room(s)

4.5 Subject always to any additional sanction under Rule 4.4 of the Technical Rules, and

except as provided below, an athlete shall be excluded from participation in any event

in which they are not present in the Call Room(s) at the relevant time as published in

the Call Room schedule (see Call Room Judges Rule of the Competition Rules).

They shall be shown in the results as DNS.

The relevant Referee will decide on this (including whether the athlete may compete

under protest if a decision cannot be made immediately) and the corresponding

reference must be made in the official results.

Justifiable reasons (e.g. factors independent of the athlete’s own actions, such as

problems with the official transport system or an error in the published Call Room

schedule) may, after confirmation, be accepted by the Referee and the athlete may

then be allowed to take part.

rojo wrote:

I wish I was making this up.

I can't believe this actually is a real story. It DISGUSTS me. A mentally impaired athlete in the F20 category showed up to the men's shot put 3 minutes late because he said he didn' thear the announcements or it was not in their native language. He allowed to throw under protest. He won. But was DQd.

What a joke.

If the athlete is late, why not just call their name when it's their time to throw and record a 0 mark for that round. If they eventually show up, let them throw for the remaining rounds. Ridiculous.

https://www.theguardian.com/sport/2021/sep/01/malaysian-shot-putter-muhammad-ziyad-zolkefli-loses-gold-late-arrival-paralympicshttps://athleticsillustrated.com/national-paralympic-committee-of-ukraine-under-attack-as-malaysian-shot-putter-disqualified/

This is ridiculous. The ‘rules are rules’ crowd disgust me. A judgment call could have been made and common sense would prevail.

It’s reminiscent to me of ‘no tolerance’ policies and other failsafes for moral cowards and the dull and incurious.