A young boy with autism was disqualified from a Special Olympics swimming final after 'he swam too fast'.
Rory Logan's mother, Briony McConville Logan, claims that he was competing in the Special Olympics Regional finals in Bangor, north Wales when the incident took place.
Belfast Live reported that Rory swam the 50 metres in 63 seconds in his heat, which meant he qualified. When he then competed in the final he smashed his personal best time and managed to finish in 53.15 seconds. Amazing, right?
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Well, when he got up to claim his medal, he was instead presented with a 'participation ribbon'.
Briony explained: "Rory came to me and said, 'Mum I didn't do anything wrong, I won fair and square, what did I do?'. I was absolutely gutted for him.
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"I went to speak to the officials and basically they said he had been disqualified because he swam too fast. No-one can get over this decision. Apparently you can't be more than 15 percent faster than the time you swam in your heats just in case you are trying to swim slower in your heat to be placed in a lower division's final. Rory swam 15.8 percent faster than his heat but someone please explain to me how a nine-year-old child would think of doing that or being that calculating."
She added: "I thought the whole idea of sport is to develop and improve but it seems to me that if you work hard and are competitive you are penalised."
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As he went to prepare for another race, he asked her: "Mum, if I go in this race do I have to go slow or will I get disqualified again?" Heart-breaking.
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Luckily, he won his next two races and was presented with medals for both.
However, his mum has appealed the decision but it was turned down. It all just seems a bit unfair to me.
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