M’sian Paralympic Swimmer’s Dad Speaks Out After Son is Excluded from Games Despite World Ranking

With the Paris Paralympic Games happening soon, many Malaysians have been showing their support and enthusiasm. However, one individual is voicing his concerns about the athlete selection process.

Walter Lee has expressed his concerns and is urging Youth and Sports Minister Hannah Yeoh to step in after his son was unexpectedly left out of the Paris Paralympic Games selection process.

He broke the Asian record and qualified for 3 events in the upcoming games

Lee turned to Facebook to voice his concerns about the fairness of the selection criteria set by the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) and the Malaysian Para Swimming Association (Prepma).

His 17-year-old son, Zy Lee Kher, has gained recognition for breaking Asian records and qualifying for 3 events in the upcoming Games. But, despite his remarkable accomplishments, he was overlooked in favour of a lower-ranked competitor.

He was placed on a bipartite slot application

In Lee’s post, he highlighted that Malaysia was awarded 2 slots for the Paris Games largely due to the continuous competition and outstanding results achieved by Syaiful and Zy over the past 3 years.

Despite Zy earning a slot for the country through his achievements, he was instead placed on a Bipartite (wild card) application, which means he did not automatically receive the slot he had qualified for.

A Bipartite slot enables chosen athletes to compete in certain events without needing to meet qualification standards, but Zy doesn’t need this since he’s already qualified for 3 events.

Lee then provided the rankings based on the official World Para Swimming (WPS) data from the International Paralympic Committee (IPC):

SYAIFUL qualifies for 4 events:

1. Men’s 50m, Free S5 World ranking #6
2. Men’s 100m, Free S5 World ranking #7
3. Men’s 200m, Free S5 World ranking #8
4. Men’s 100m, Breast SB4 World ranking #7

ZY qualifies for 3 events:

1. Men’s 100m, Free S5 World ranking #10
2. Men’s 200m, Free S5 World ranking #7
3. Men’s 100m, Breast SB4 World ranking #11

IMAAN qualifies for 1 event:

1. Men’s 100m, Backstroke S14 World ranking #14

Syaiful and Zy are the top 2 medal prospects

With the facts in place, Lee pointed out that, it’s clear that Syaiful and Zy are the strongest candidates for medals. However, the focus should still be on ensuring that all 3 qualified athletes make it through.

“When picking athletes, we should choose the one with the most qualified events and highest global ranking. It’s obvious that Syaiful and Zy are the 2 potential best medal hopes, although we should focus on getting all 3 qualified athletes through.” Lee added.

What do you think of this? Let us know in the comments down below!

Also read: M’sians Urged To “Stop Bothering” & Commenting On Paralympian Ziyad Zolkefli’s Disqualification