Paralympic athlete stripped of gold medal for bizarre rule-break despite protest
Iran’s Sadegh Beit Sayah has been stripped of his Paralympic gold medal after picking up two yellow card offences.
The 37-year-old set a new Paralympic record in the men’s F41 Javelin final on Saturday with a throw of 47.64 metres.
But elation soon turned to heartbreak for Beit Sayah, as he was stripped of his medal just before the awards ceremony due to him unfurling a religious flag in his celebrations.
He had already picked up a yellow card for appearing to perform a throat-slitting gesture after his record-breaking throw.
After winning, he unfurled a black flag with red writing, seeing him earn a second warning.
Speaking after his disqualification, Beit Sayah said the flag had no political meaning, but was rather a religious flag in honour of Hazrat Ummul Banin, the wife of Ali ibn Abi Talib, the first Shia Imam.
However, rule 8.1 of the International Paralympics Committee (IPC) regulations, states: “The IPC Code of Ethics and the World Para Athletics Code of Conduct (both located on the IPC website) shall apply to all participants of World Para Athletics Recognised Competitions.
“Any breach of these Regulations shall be determined in accordance with the procedures outlined in the World Para Athletics Code of Conduct.”
The flag also breached rule 1.11 of the IPC Code of Ethics.
The regulation states athletes must ‘refrain from using the Paralympic Games and the Paralympic Movement to promote any political agenda, other than the advancement of sport for persons with an impairment and democracy, empowerment, equality, and the protection of human rights.’
The decision was appealed, but it was unsuccessful.
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The head of Iran’s Para-Athletics Association, Aliasghar Hadizadeh, said: “When the competition was over and the results were announced, we found out that he had been disqualified, so we immediately went to the authorities and announced our strong protest.
“After our protest, a meeting was held and the videos of the competition were shown. Considering that every athlete has a kind of happiness. Some of Shadi Beit Sayah’s behaviour was not approved by the referee, and our athlete was disqualified.
“Usually, when athletes break the record, they pass their hands past their necks as a sign of breaking this record, which took a different interpretation and showed the first yellow card to Beit Sayah.”
Asked about the flag, Hadizadeh said: “We always give the Iranian flag to the athlete from above, but Mr. Beit Sayyah took this flag out of his sports backpack because of his devotion to Hazrat Ummul Banin, and he got the second yellow card and his gold medal and record were removed.”
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Beit Sayah did not get disqualified for lifting the Iranian flag at Tokyo 2020.
However, he may have avoided punishment due to picking up only one yellow card, not two.
As a result of his disqualification, India’s Navdeep Singh won gold.
China’s Sun Pengxiang and Iraq’s Wildan Nukhailawi took silver and bronze respectively.
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