Paralympics descends into chaos as swimmer is wrongly disqualified for 'breaking little-known rule'

The Paralympics descended into chaos on Sunday when a swimmer was wrongly disqualified for allegedly breaking the rules.

Day four of the 2024 Paralympics didn't get off to the best of starts, with all 11 triathlon events postponed due to high levels of bacteria in the River Seine.

The controversy continued later on in the day, when Australian swimmer Ahmed Kelly was wrongly disqualified from his race.

Kelly - who has had both arms amputated below the elbow and both legs amputated below the knee - was competing in the men's 150m medley SM3 heat on Sunday, September 1.

The 32-year-old came in second place behind his compatriot, Grant Patterson, but was later disqualified due to a misunderstanding about the type of stroke he'd performed.

Front crawl is the usual stroke of choice for the freestyle leg of medley events, but Kelly opted to use butterfly instead and was subsequently disqualified.

Fortunately, Swimming Australia quickly launched an appeal and the disqualification was overturned.

Fellow swimmer, Annabelle Williams, later explained the confusion during a broadcast on Channel 9, revealing that Kelly was not in breach of rules by using a butterfly stroke during the freestyle leg.

"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," she began.

Ahmed Kelly went on to win the silver medal after being reinstated. [Getty]

"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."

She then went on to clarify that Kelly had also performed all of his swimming strokes in the correct order, adding: "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."

After he was reinstated, Kelly won the silver medal in the 150m individual medley final.

It was a successful event for Team Australia, as Patterson would also make it onto the medals podium after finishing in third place.