‘Why have you been punished for helping him?’: Paralympian to appeal ‘cruel’ disqualification and loss of bronze medal

(CNN) — As visually impaired Spanish runner Elena Congost approached the finish line in the women’s T12 marathon on the final day of the Paralympics, she and her guide, Mia Carol, began to discuss the bronze medal they were about to win.

Having run for three hours, Congost and Carol were a good three minutes ahead of Japan’s fourth-placed Misato Michishita and her guide. So comfortable was their lead that, with Carol cramping up, Congost agreed to slow down.

But just 10 yards away from the finish line, Carol stumbled. Congost helped him, briefly letting go of the tether – which blind and visually impaired runners use so that their guide can keep them on the right track – to stop Carol from falling to the ground.

With Carol running steadily again, he and Congost crossed the finish line to claim the bronze medal – or so they thought. Shortly after, organizers ruled that Congost was disqualified from the race for letting go of the tether to help her guide.

Rule 7.9.3 of the World Para Athletic Rules and Regulations states: “The athlete and their accompanying guide-runner shall retain the tether attachment from the start of the race until the end of the race” and that “No release shall be allowed until after the athlete and their accompanying guide-runner have both reached the vertical plane of the nearer edge of the finish line and finished the race.”

“I couldn’t believe what was happening,” Congost told CNN Sport. “I’d worked so hard, I’d fought, I’d tried my best. So many people have helped me, and they deserve that celebration with the medal.

“This rule was written because there were some years when athletes crossed the finish line alone without their guide,” she continued. “But this case has nothing to do with that reason. Nobody pushes me, nobody lets go of me, the tether simply falls while I’m helping him.

“We could have crossed the finish line walking.”

CNN Sport has contacted World Para Athletics and the International Paralympic Committee for comment.

A ‘quite unpleasant’ comeback

Congost won gold in the women’s T12 marathon at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, but did not compete three years ago in Tokyo, having had four children in the years following her success in Brazil.

Taking bronze in Paris would have capped a remarkable comeback for the 36-year-old, and after the race, Congost said that she had been motivated by the thought of her children – two of whom, aged four and six, were waiting for her at the finish line.

“I told (reporters) that I was very happy, above all for my children, because they saw me training, they saw me fight, they saw me cry, they saw me laugh. They are aware of how difficult it has been for me,” she told CNN.

“It was also a way of teaching them that when you fight and you work and you strive, you end up achieving things.”

The Spaniard was with her two children by the time she was told the bronze medal would not be hers.

“They missed the beautiful part of the celebration, and instead they saw me crying,” said Congost. “They also ended up crying. It was quite unpleasant.

“My eldest, who is six, didn’t understand what was going on. He was asking, ‘Why have you been punished for helping him?’ As a mother, what I always try to teach is that if someone needs help, you have to help them.

“I had to explain that injustices exist in the world and that sometimes doing things right doesn’t mean being rewarded. I don’t know if they ended up understanding it or not because they are very small.”

Congost believes that, in disqualifying her for helping Carol, judges went against the spirit of the Paralympic Games.