Fans Enraged after Malaysian Paralympic Athlete was Stripped of Gold Medal.

By Miraya Aggrawal

Shot Putter Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli was stripped of his Gold Medal for arriving 30 minutes to his event at the International Paralympic Games September 1st, 2021.

According to the BBC “Shot putter Muhammad Ziyad Zolkefli won gold in the F20 class, but was later disqualified for arriving three minutes late for the event.” The International Paralympic Committee (IPC) had originally allowed him to play since they believed he would have a logical reason for his tardiness. After reconsideration, the referee revealed that there was no real reason for Zolkefli to be late.

This resulted in his name trending on Twitter, with people making strong arguments in his favor and demanding the IPC reevaluate their decision. Malaysian MP Fahmi Fadzil sent his regards and mentioned that it was unreasonable to disqualify him since if it had been an issue then they would not have been allowed to compete. Since the news broke many have come out with extremely abusive comments about the Ukrainians. In this situation, it is important to not reach conclusions until we have further insight into what really went down at the Paralympics.