Paralympic Games: Amputee swimmer wrongly disqualified over little-known rule as chaos descends on Paris pool

A Paralympic swimmer was wrongly disqualified on Sunday but was later allowed back into the pool, causing confusion at the Paris pool.

Iraqi-born Australian star Ahmed Kelly, who is missing both arms below the elbow and both legs completely, was disqualified by officials after his heat in the men’s 150m individual medley SM3.

According to officials, Kelly had performed the butterfly stroke instead of the freestyle in the final part of the race.

Swimming Australia immediately appealed the decision, but subsequently confirmed that their swimmer had recovered and would compete in the final.

Her Australian swimmer Annabelle Williams clarified the situation by saying that officials had overlooked a little-known rule in the medley.

“The good lawyer in me looked at the rules again. The definition of freestyle is you can do whatever you want as long as it’s not backstroke or breaststroke,” she said during the Nine broadcast.

‘You can do any stroke you want; freestyle or butterfly with two arms. Ahmed had [a] double arm butterfly, so I can’t understand why that rule seems to be in conflict.

The swimmer was believed to be performing a butterfly stroke during his freestyle.

But the officials were told that you can perform butterfly during the freestyle

“And secondly, swimming strokes in the wrong order. He absolutely did not do that. There is video footage of him swimming the first length on his back, the second length breaststroke, and the third length butterfly with two arms, which is absolutely allowed when you swim freestyle.”

Kelly will be joined in the final by his Australian teammate Grant ‘Scooter’ Patterson.

Patterson, who gets around on a scooter, has diastrophic dysplasia, which means he is very small, has short limbs and limited mobility due to joint problems.