Aussie Ahmed Kelly disqualified, then reinstated in wild Paralympic backflip

Aussie Paralympian Ahmed Kelly was dragged through the ringer after a disqualification drama rocked his Paris campaign.

Aussie Paralympic swimmer Ahmed Kelly was wrongly disqualified and later reinstated thanks to a little-known rule in the 150m medley SM3.

Kelly is an amputee and is missing both arms below the elbow and both legs below the knee.

He finished second in his heat behind compatriot Grant Patterson but was disqualified.

That is because he performed butterfly instead of front crawl in the freestyle leg of the medley, with swimmers commonly opting to use front crawl.

Paralympic officials wrongly hit Kelly with a disqualification, with Swimming Australia’s appeal pointing out the rules which only forbid backstroke or breaststroke in the freestyle leg.

Kelly was reinstated after the little known rule was pointed out, which fellow Aussie swimmer Annabelle Williams later explained.

She said on Australia’s Channel 9: “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.

It was the drama Kelly didn’t need. Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images

“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.

“And secondly, swimming strokes in the incorrect order. He definitely didn’t do that.

“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 also baffled by the decision.

“The reason surprised me because I’ve been to four Games, and they couldn’t get it right today for some reason,” Kelly said. “They make mistakes. Officials are humans. We put that put behind us and tried to put a real good race on tonight.

“Once the decision was overturned, it was all full focus for that final. It definitely didn’t impact that race. I’ve got quite a unique freestyle that may look like it’s butterfly, but in fact … it’s not exactly butterfly.”

Silver and bronze for Kelly and Patterson respectively. Photo by Adam Pretty/Getty Images

Kelly went on to win silver. Photo by Sean M. Haffey/Getty Images

The story has a happy ending as well as Kelly ended up winning the silver medal, with great mate Grant “Scooter” Patterson taking the bronze medal.

Kelly had been leading by 3.47 seconds with one lap to go but Germany’s Josia Topf came home strong, ultimately winning the race by two seconds.

“I’ve been working for the last three years for that gold and redemption from Tokyo silver,” Kelly said.

“The disqualification couldn’t really throw me completely off the rails. I’ve gone through a lot worse.”

This story first appeared in The Sun and was republished with permission.

Originally published as Aussie Ahmed Kelly disqualified, then reinstated in wild Paralympic backflip