Canadian wheelchair racer Diane Roy may be forced to return her Paralympic gold medal because of a crash that occured, prompting an official to go onto the track, during the 5,000m distance race in Beijing last night.
Roy told the CBC,
"It's unjust for a lot of people, for the team, for me, for my coach, for the other athletes."
The event has been rescheduled for this Friday, but Roy has a 400m race on Thursday, potentially jeapordizing her chances at re-winning the medal.
Six of the eleven competitors were involved in a crash caused when Swiss racer Edith Hunkeler ran into a teammate:
That caused a chain reaction crash which left several athletes, including Hunkeler, on the ground. Two athletes were later taken to hospital. The remaining racers were further impeded with about 50 metres left when a judge rushed onto the track to help some of the fallen athletes.
Hunkeler was disqualified and will not race Friday.
Chris Cohen, he of the longest title ever, chair of the International Paralympic Committie's athletic executive committee, made a really awkward quote:
"The fact over half the athletes in the race clearly were disadvantaged, including the athletes who actually managed to carry on in their chairs … they [the jury] felt the race needed to run again but without the athlete who created the situation"
Dude, not cool.
So we have a number of topics to discuss here:
Did you know the Paralympics were going on?
Should there be "do-overs," in the Paralympics, or in any sport for that matter?
I think it should be like car racing. Try not to crash, if you do, you're done.
[ via cbc & canada.com ]