Guide's Stumble Costs Visually Impaired Runner a Medal

A visually impaired marathoner is "devastated" after losing out on a bronze medal on the final day of the Paralympics with an instinctive move feet from the finish line. Elena Congost, 36, of Spain, who has a degenerative hereditary eye disease, was competing Sunday in the T12 event for runners with visual impairment, which requires a runner to be tethered to a guide for the entire race. As Congost and guide Mia Carol approached the finish line after three hours of running, Carol cramped up and lost his footing, causing Congost to briefly drop the tether in her hand, per the New York Times. The pair made it over the finish line more than three minutes ahead of the fourth-place finisher, but Congost was disqualified.

"I'm devastated, to be honest, because I had the medal," Congost said. "I have been disqualified for being human and for an instinct that comes to you when someone is falling and to help or support them." She noted there wasn't "any kind of benefit" for herself. "In fact, it is clear that I stop dead," she said, per News.com.au. Congost painted the disqualification as unfair, a view echoed by many. "This decision ruins the Paralympics," one onlooker wrote on X, per News.com.au. "How can you be called inclusive if you can't help a person from falling?" The bronze medal instead went to Misato Michishita of Japan. Morocco's Fatima El Idrissi and Meryem En-Nourhi took home gold and silver, respectively.

Iranian javelin thrower Sadegh Beit Sayah has similarly complained about being stripped of his gold medal on Saturday. Competing in the F41 event for athletes of short stature, he was viewed to have made a throat-slitting gesture and a political statement, per the Times. But Iranian officials said the gesture was celebratory, while Beit Sayah claimed the unfurling of a flag in tribute to Umm al-Banin, a figure in Shia Islam, was "a mark of respect and devotion, not to promote any political agenda." India's Navdeep Singh, who finished second, ultimately took the top spot. (More 2024 Paralympics stories.)