A controversial Iranian monitor star-turned-Turkish-para-athlete has been stripped of a gold medal he gained on the Paralympic Video games in Paris and denied the correct to compete in one other occasion on the Video games.
Sajjad Hashemi was one in every of Iran’s quickest males and represented the nation within the London Olympics in 2012 and the Rio Olympics in 2016. He holds the Iranian report within the 400 meters and 200 meters, in addition to within the relay occasions within the 400 and 200 meters.
However he final competed for Iran in 2021 and since then gained Turkish citizenship, modified his title to Serkan Yildirim, and gained a spot on Turkey’s Para-Athletic crew as a consequence of impaired eyesight. On the age of 33 he made his beautiful para-athletics debut, breaking the world report within the 100 meters T12 occasion with a time of 10.53 seconds on the World Para Athletics Championships in Tokyo in Might.
Yildirim adopted up on that success within the Paralympic Video games in Paris on August 31, successful gold within the 100 meters T12, a incapacity class for monitor athletes with a visible impairment that requires them to run with a sighted information. However on September 4, the World Para Athletics (WPA), the worldwide federation chargeable for the game, introduced that Yildirim had been disqualified.
“The outcomes of Mr. Yildirim within the males’s 100m T12 medal occasion have been disqualified, with all ensuing penalties,” the WPA mentioned in an announcement. “The medals from the lads’s 100m T12 medal occasion can be reallocated.”
Along with dropping his gold medal, Yildirim was barred from competing in a second occasion, the 400 meters T12.
Yildirim’s disqualification resulted from a technicality stemming from a German regional court docket ruling that allowed him to compete in Paris. In accordance with the WPA, it was notified on August 30 with out discover of an “interim injunction issued by a single choose within the Bonn regional court docket” requiring Yildirim to be allowed to compete in his two occasions on the Paralympic Video games, which started two days prior.
Nonetheless, the “WPA was not supplied with discover of the proceedings, or any alternative to take part in them.”
As a result of Yildirim’s classification standing was underneath a “sport class standing ‘evaluate,'” which might make him ineligible to compete underneath WPA laws, the governing physique appealed the German court docket’s injunction, whereas permitting him to compete pending the outcomes of the attraction.
After a better court docket dominated in favor of the WPA’s attraction, the injunction was lifted, and the WPA instantly disqualified Yildirim.
The WPA mentioned in its assertion that it was “unable to supply additional substantive remark at this cut-off date.” The WPA responded to additional questions by RFE/RL relating to the reasoning for the evaluate of Yildirim’s standing by referring to its September 4 assertion, whereas the Worldwide Paralympic Committee didn’t instantly reply.
The Turkish Nationwide Paralympics Committee didn’t reply to RFE/RL’s questions in regards to the case, nor did it reply to RFE/RL’s questions final month relating to a rising controversy in Iranian media about Yildirim’s standing as a para-athlete.
Following a narrative by RFE/RL’s Radio Farda titled A Champion With Two Identities in July, questions had been raised about Yildirim’s eligibility to compete as a para-athlete.
The story famous that Yildirim usually appeared in sun shades whereas operating as a para-athlete for Turkey and in images posted to an Instagram web page underneath his new title. The account, which RFE/RL was unable to confirm was overseen by Yildirim, provided no hints that he had beforehand competed for Iran.
The report additionally famous that, in current photographs on an Instagram account underneath the title Sajjad Hashemi, the runner appeared with out sun shades or different indicators of doable impairment and no hint of his actions as a para-athlete in Turkey. That Instagram account not exists.
Following the publication of Radio Farda’s report, Hashemi responded to questions despatched earlier to his Persian-language Instagram account asking in regards to the obvious inconsistencies within the posts on two social media accounts.
‘Comparatively Extreme’ Incapacity
Responding within the feedback part of Radio Farda’s Instagram account, Hashemi mentioned that he was an “athlete from Tabriz who, for private causes, competes for Turkey right this moment.”
He mentioned he had modified his title after gaining Turkish citizenship and that the one motive he didn’t point out his previous as an athlete competing for Iran was as a result of “the viewers of my sports activities situation is tied to the folks of Turkey.”
The athlete mentioned he had “been visually impaired since 1986” and has had “comparatively extreme” incapacity standing in Iran for greater than twenty years however most well-liked to not compete as a para-athlete. In different reviews he defined that his poor imaginative and prescient triggered him to leap the gun firstly of races.
He mentioned that whereas he’s not utterly blind, his impairment had grown dangerous sufficient to earn him permission to compete as a para-athlete.
Subsequent reviews within the Iranian media overtly questioned the veracity of Hashemi/Yildirim’s impairment and eligibility to compete in para-athletics, together with quotes revealed by the conservative information web site Tabnak by which Iranian athletes mentioned they’d not observed something irregular whereas coaching and competing with him and coaches who mentioned the Iranian crew might “not settle for the speculation that he had imaginative and prescient issues.”
In an interview revealed on August 19 by Tabnak, Hashemi/Yildirim mentioned that “generally information is revealed just for views and clicks.”
He mentioned that some folks sadly can not distinguish the distinction between being blind and visually impaired, however that he had had a illness that affected his eyesight since he was 10 that received progressively worse. By the Rio Olympics in 2016, he mentioned, he knew his situation was dangerous sufficient to be eligible to compete as a para-athlete.
On August 20, the WPA mentioned in feedback to RFE/RL that “classification is carried out via a rigorous course of to find out which athletes are eligible for para athletics, after which allocate eligible athletes into sport lessons for competitors.”
Classification is granted following an intensive evaluate of medical evaluations to verify an eligible impairment, in addition to in-person evaluations by licensed professionals to “assess whether or not the athlete meets the minimal impairment standards for the game and to assign them a sport class.”
Whereas saying that the WPA can not touch upon particular person athletes or instances as a consequence of confidentiality, the oversight physique mentioned that it may possibly protest an athlete’s sport classification at any time and “takes all allegations of classification-related misconduct very severely.”