Róża Kozakowska’s Paralympic day ended in both triumph and disappointment on the event date, after the Polish athlete was disqualified a day after winning gold in the women’s F32 club throw.

The ruling overturned a result that had initially looked like one of Poland’s standout moments of the Games. Kozakowska had thrown 31.30 metres in her opening attempt, setting a world record at the time and putting herself in position to win the title. She later managed 29.70 metres before a shoulder injury forced her to stop competing and leave the venue for medical treatment.

At first, those throws were enough to make her champion. But the celebration did not last. Authorities later informed the Polish team that the equipment used in the competition did not meet the required parameters. According to the report, the issue concerned the size of the head pillow attached to the throwing setup.

Poland appealed the decision, but the appeal was rejected. That left Kozakowska without the gold medal she had been awarded and handed victory instead to Tunisia’s Maroura Brahmi, whose best throw was 29 metres.

The sequence was severe because it combined competitive, administrative and physical setbacks in one case. Kozakowska not only lost the title after the protest was upheld, but also suffered a shoulder injury during the final itself. The Polish Paralympic Committee later said that her health was the immediate priority and that a full review would follow once emotions had settled after the Games.

The ruling also underscored how exact Paralympic classification and equipment rules can be. In events such as the F32 club throw, small technical details matter because they are part of the mechanism used to keep competition fair across athletes with different impairments and needs. When a protest is filed and accepted, the consequences can be immediate and irreversible.

Kozakowska’s case was especially painful because the original performance had looked dominant. Her first throw had broken the world record she had set herself, and the final result seemed secure before the equipment challenge changed everything. What had been presented as a clear gold-medal success became one of the most abrupt reversals of the Paris Paralympics for the Polish team.

For Poland, the episode left two stories at once: a serious appeal process and concern for an injured athlete. For Kozakowska, it turned a moment of sporting achievement into a difficult dispute over rules that decided the result after the competition had ended.