The Paralympic Council of Ireland (PCI) today revealed that Athens Paralympic medalist Derek Malone has been judged not sufficiently disabled to compete in the Beijing Games.
According to the council, following a ruling by the Cerebral Palsy International Sports and Recreation Association (CP-ISRA), Mr Malone, a bronze medalist from Athens 2004 in the 800m T38, was deemed ineligible to compete in the football seven-a-side tournament in Beijing.
The PCI were informed of the decision in writing on September 8th following a classification review during the Ireland v Iran pool game in the seven-a-side football tournament earlier that day.
Speaking at the Irish team press conference, Mr Malone said: "I'm bitterly disappointed and frustrated by the whole process. I am also disappointed that the team's preparations have been so hampered by this issue at the most important tournament in the last four years for us."
He added it had been "a distressing few days".
The ruling on Mr Malone's classification said he may not participate based upon the "impact on sport" rule. The CPISRA ruling stated that the althlete does not meet the organisation's minimal disability criteria.
Cerebral Palsy (CP) is an impairment resulting from injury to the developing brain that results in altered neuromuscular function and can respond to planned athletic conditioning and training.
The "impact on sport" rule states that the athlete may appear to have near-normal function when running but must demonstrate a limitation in function based on evidence of spasticity, ataxic, athetoid or dystonic movements while performing on the field or in training.
The Paralympic Council of Ireland said that despite the ineligiblity ruling on the basis of the "impact [of CP] on sport" rule there is still no clear definition of this basis.
The council added it is was unclear as to what the criteria the CPISRA used in its assessement, and that the sole criteria appeared to be the opinion of the classification team.
The governing body pointed out that Mr Malone was medically assessed by a consultant neurologist who has confirmed the presence of signs of a major and minor criteria as per the CPISRA classification manual, in conjunction with increased signs of neurological dysfunction with minimal exercise.
Secretary General of the Paralympic Council of Ireland Liam Harbison said: "At the heart of this issue is the fact that with this ruling CPISRA are throwing the whole essence of cerebral palsy football as elite sport into question."
Mr Harbison continued: "As a model athlete Derek has committed himself to the paralympic ideal of the pursuit of athletic endeavour and focused on ability rather than disability by dedicated training, and by making the best use of all his skills as a strength and conditioning professional.
"As a result he is deemed ineligible but it appears to be the case that if he had not pursued his athletic endeavour with such zeal for a significant time period leading into these Games he is more likely to have been classified eligible - that is at odds with the very ethos of high performance sport.
He added that the Paralympic Council of Ireland wished to express its unqualified support for the athlete. "We feel he has become a victim of a flawed rule book that hasn't kept sufficient pace with the development of elite cerebral palsy sport."
