The Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) and the Malaysian Para Swimming Association (Prepma) have garnered attention after Walter Lee and his son, national para swimmer Zy Lee Kher, raised questions about the selection process for swimmers heading to the 2024 Paralympics in Paris.
Hailing from Penang, 19-year-old Zy was born without three limbs. He only has a full left arm, half a right arm, no right leg, and a left leg with only three toes.
Despite being born differently, Zy started swimming at 6 years old and began competing globally by the time he was around 13 years old (circa 2019).
He has won six international medals, including two bronze medals at last year’s Hangzhou Asian Para Games.
Walter Lee said his son broke the Asian record in 2023 and qualified for the Olympics at the same time. Zy is now qualified in three events for the 2024 Paris Paralympics.
However, things didn’t go to plan because it was announced that Zy’s alleged slot was given to a lower-tier swimmer Imaan Aiman Redzuan.
According to Scoop, Zy competes in the S5 and SB4 categories (physical impairment) while Imaan is in the S14 category (intellectual impairment).
Zy ranked number 7 in the men’s 200m freestyle S5, number 13 in the 100m freestyle S5, and number 12 in the 100m breaststroke SB4.
Meanwhile, Imaan is ranked number 17 in the 100m backstroke S14.
Long story short, Zy qualified for three events while Imaan qualified for one.
With the facts in place, Zy and his father claimed it was reasonable to assume which person stood the highest chance of winning medals.
Walter said the Malaysian authorities assigned Zy the Bipartite slot (a wild card selection system) instead of sending him to the competition by merit. They didn’t raise the issue then because they trusted the leaders and the process.
A Bipartite slot allows selected athletes to participate in some competitions without a qualification performance, which is unnecessary for Zy since he’s qualified for three events.
Both father and son claimed to have tried to get answers about Zy’s paralympic status through calls and mails in May but were ignored or given the run around by the relevant authorities.
In July, the swimming association’s selection committee told father and son that Zy was dropped in favour of another athlete.
PCM and Prepma clarified that the selection for the upcoming Paris Paralympics was based on the athletes’ ability to win medals for the country. The application for bipartite slot was also unsuccessful.
In a report by Scoop, Walter challenged PCM and Prepma’s modules used to evaluate an athlete’s probability of winning a medal.
The probability result allegedly showed that Imaan scored 96.3% based on personal best (PB) times while another swimmer Nur Syaiful Zulkafli had a 95.5% probability for the Men’s SB4 100m breaststroke event.
Zy allegedly scored significantly lower which placed him as the third choice.
Walter said he doesn’t understand why they calculated the probability by calculating the athletes’ timing instead of ranking, citing it’s against IPC’s guidelines that stated calculations should be made based on rankings.
I think both the PCM and Prepma are just randomly calculating the athletes’ probability without going through the IPC guidelines and without fully comprehending it.
Walter Lee, Zy’s father and executive member at Prepma
Walter wants PCM and Prepma to come clean and prove to the country how they did the calculations.
Zy and his father allegedly tried to get answers from the authorities once more but were ignored again.
Zy’s last-ditch plea to Hannah Yeoh
In a last-ditch effort, Zy made a private and personal appeal to Hannah Yeoh, the Youth & Sports Minister.
In his plea to Yeoh, Zy claimed it was obvious Prepma had planned to exclude him the moment the association used his name to apply for a bipartite slot.
He claimed head coach Fumiyo and team manager Jennifer were experienced enough to know that there was no way the International Paralympic Committee (IPC) would allow an athlete ranked 7th in the world to get the bipartite slot.
Zy said the bipartite card has never been applied by top-10 athletes. He explained that the application would be expected to be rejected as it defeats the purpose of the bipartite slot.
Zy added that the IPC allows up to three athletes per event upon qualification as stated in the Paralympics rules and regulations. He pointed out how the Chinese team has three people in some races while Thailand had 2 slots but managed to get all five qualified swimmers in. Out of the five, one got in through the bipartite slot.
Zy shared that he had trained hard despite missing the Tokyo Olympics and sacrificed his time with family and friends to achieve the dream of competing in the Paralympics.
Seeing what has happened in the past few months has really shaken my belief. It feels like someone has taken something away from me that I’ve been working on for my entire childhood. I feel very disappointed, being lied to and used.
National para-swimmer Zy Lee Kher
Father and son received backlash from Paralympics Council
On 16 July, Walter claimed that the Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) president, Datuk Seri Megat D. Shahriman Zaharudin, berated and threatened them publicly for raising the issue.
PCM decided to take disciplinary action against Walter and his son for tarnishing the image of the council and Prepma. Zy will be charged for breaching the athletes’ code of conduct set by the National Sports Council (NSC).
Megat said it’s to teach athletes not to take things for granted and to seek clarification from the council before acting independently.
Megat added that Walter, an executive member at Prepma, is expected to be charged for abusing his power and stirring up controversy with World Para Swimming (WPS) without consulting the governing body.
NSC already has a code of conduct, and whatever Lee Kher said in the video was baseless. We don’t send athletes based on rankings; athletes are evaluated based on their timing, and that’s how it works in WPS, which we take very seriously.
Paralympic Council of Malaysia (PCM) president, Datuk Seri Megat D. Shahriman Zaharudin
Megat said he doesn’t blame Zy much but blamed Walter instead for stirring the controversy “without knowing what he is doing.”
He claimed PCM and Prepma have always been transparent with their selection process and have never engaged in dubious activities.
TRP has been informed that Walter plans to hold a press conference soon to address the allegations. TRP has also reached out to PCM for comments.
Currently, Malaysia has two slots for the para-swimming event and Prepma is sending Nur Syaiful and Imaan Aiman.
The Paralympics is scheduled from 28 August to 8 September 2024.
