Court of Arbitration for Sport cas. “Even the power of speech was lost”: reaction to the acquittal of Russian athletes by the court in Lausanne. CAS ad hoc division on Olympic matters

https://www.site/2018-02-01/sportivnyy_arbitrazh_opravdal_pozhiznenno_otstranennyh_rossiyskih_sportsmenov

The Arbitration for Sports acquitted those banned for life Russian athletes

Alexandr Yakovlev/Russian Look

Sports arbitration court(CAS) in Lausanne on February 1 announced a decision on 39 Russian athletes who were previously banned for life from participating in the Olympic Games in connection with a doping scandal.

According to the site's correspondent, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) found that athletes violated anti-doping rules at the 2014 Winter Olympic Games in Sochi and decided to disqualify them, thereby depriving them of their medals. In addition, athletes were banned for life from taking part in the Olympic Games in any capacity.

39 Russian athletes filed complaints, stating that there was no direct evidence of their doping. Arbitration proceedings were opened for each appeal.

On February 1, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne upheld the appeals of 28 out of 39 Russian athletes, according to a CAS press release.

The list of those acquitted included: Dmitry Trunenkov, Alexey Negodaylo, Olga Stulneva, Lyudmila Udobkina (bobsleigh); Alexander Tretyakov, Sergei Chudinov, Elena Nikitina, Olga Potylitsyna, Maria Orlova (skeleton); Alexander Legkov, Evgeny Belov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexey Petukhov, Nikita Kryukov, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Evgenia Shapovalova, Natalya Matveeva (skiing); Olga Fatkulina, Alexey Rumyantsev, Ivan Skobrev, Artyom Kuznetsov (speed skating); Tatyana Ivanova, Albert Demchenko (luge); Ekaterina Lebedeva, Ekaterina Smolentseva, Ekaterina Pashkevich, Tatyana Burina, Anna Shchukina (hockey).

Another 11 athletes were found guilty of violating anti-doping rules, but the court replaced the life ban with a ban on participation in the 2018 Games in PyeongChang.

On December 5, 2017, the Executive Committee of the International Olympic Committee (IOC) suspended membership Olympic Committee RF and suspended the Russian team from Winter Olympics. Only those athletes who could prove their “purity” were allowed to participate in the Games. They won't be able to demonstrate National symbols, must perform under the IOC flag, and if they win, the Olympic anthem will be played.

On January 25, the Russian Olympic Committee published full list Russian athletes who received invitations from the IOC to Pyeongchang. As part of the team " Olympic athletes from Russia" will feature 169 athletes in 15 sports (225 Russian athletes were selected for the 2014 Olympics in Sochi).

Against the background of anti-doping courage, the Russian team lost 111 candidates for a trip to Pyeongchang, including more than 10 superstars who claimed gold at the 2018 Olympics. Among them is sixfold Olympic champion short track skating Viktor An, Olympic biathlon champion Anton Shipulin, two-time world champion in cross-country skiing Sergei Ustyugov, speed skaters Pavel Kulizhnikov and Denis Yuskov, figure skaters Ksenia Stolbova and Ivan Bukin.

The Olympic Games in Pyeongchang will be held from February 9 to 25. For those athletes who did not receive an invitation to the 2018 Olympics, an alternative tournament will be organized in Sochi.

WADA criticized the decision of the sports arbitration on Russian athletes. Officials even allowed an appeal against this verdict. Thus, the agency supported the position of the International Olympic Committee, which stated that the CAS decision "could have a serious impact on the future fight against doping." The lifting of sanctions from Russian athletes has become one of the main topics in the world press. How foreign media evaluate the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne - in a review of the foreign press on Kommersant FM.

“The decision of the arbitration court in Lausanne plunges olympic movement into chaos on the eve of a major international sporting event", writes the British The Guardian. There are many questions for CAS: “It seems that the cases of Russian athletes were considered as ordinary cases of doping, that is, each was investigated individually. At the same time, the court did not take into account the national scale of the doping scam in Russia. Obviously, this court decision gives Russia a powerful argument in the propaganda war,” the publication concludes.

“The Olympic movement is in a swamp,” writes the German Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung. “Assessing only the personal responsibility of athletes, without taking into account the state scale of doping violations in Russia, shows that the fight of international sports associations with a well-organized state doping system is completely ineffective.”

“The CAS decision is another blow to the leadership of the International Olympic Committee,” writes The New York Times. “Clean sport is dead,” the publication quotes Jim Walden, Grigory Rodchenkov’s lawyer. According to him, this position of the court justifies fraudulent athletes and demoralizes honest athletes. But most importantly, it protects the Russian doping system.

“At WADA, the Lausanne verdict caused serious concern,” writes The Washington Post. Independent expert Richard McLaren said it would cause concern and disappointment among other athletes. According to him, the agency supports the IOC's intention to carefully analyze these CAS decisions and is considering all options, including an appeal to the Swiss Federal Court.

Artem Patsev, sports lawyer:

The Swiss Supreme Court does not consider issues on the merits - issues of assessing evidence, sufficiency of evidence, and so on. The only basis for applying to the Swiss Supreme Court to overturn the CAS decision is a gross violation of some procedural rules, which, obviously, did not and could not exist in this case. And I, frankly, do not see any real chance of a successful appeal in this case.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne (CAS) refused to uphold the appeals of Russian athletes filed against the IOC's decision not to allow them to participate in the Olympic Games. Thus, the Russian team will be missing 47 athletes

CAS refused to consider the decision to exclude athletes as a sanction. The consideration of the remaining cases took place on the night of February 9. In total, 47 people wrote applications to arbitration, all their appeals were rejected, the decision says Sports arbitration, published on the CAS website.

“The CAS arbitrators consider that the process organized by the IOC to create a list of invited Russian athletes to participate in the Olympic Games from Russia cannot be called sanctions [against them],” CAS said.

The court took into account the broad gesture of the IOC to give some Russian athletes the opportunity to compete at the Olympics, albeit under neutral flag. CAS considered this decision a step “designed to balance the interests of some athletes from Russia and the interests of the IOC aimed at the global fight against doping.”

“CAS also found that the applicants failed to demonstrate that the manner in which two IOC ad hoc panels assessed them [for the ineligibility decision] was discriminatory or unfair,” the court’s decision said.

It is separately noted that illegal actions are not seen in the actions of the Olympic Committee.

The IOC received this news without a hint of joy.

“We welcome the CAS decision, it supports the fight against doping and provides clarity [regarding participation in the Games] to all athletes,” the IOC said in a statement on its official Twitter channel.

IOC Statement on CAS: We welcome this decision which supports the fight against doping and brings clarity for all athletes.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Lausanne on Thursday announced the final decision on the appeals of 39 Russian athletes banned for life by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) commission for anti-doping rule violations at Sochi 2014.

Thus, acquitted athletes have the right to replenish the reduced delegation of Olympic athletes from Russia, which has already begun to depart for the Olympic Village.

“Both CAS panels unanimously accepted that the evidence provided by the IOC in relation to this case was not equivalent in each individual case,” the CAS decision said. “In 28 cases, the evidence was found to be inconclusive to establish an anti-doping rule violation by athletes. Accordingly, 28 athletes’ appeals were satisfied, the sanctions were canceled and their personal results in Sochi 2014 were restored."

Completely justified with the lifting of sanctions and restoration of the results shown:

The Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) has already asked the International Olympic Committee (IOC) to send invitations to 15 of the 28 acquitted Russian athletes to the 2018 Olympics in Pyeongchang no later than February 2:
skeleton- Alexander Tretyakov, Elena Nikitina, Maria Orlova, Sergei Chudinov;
ski race- Alexander Legkov, Evgeny Belov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexander Bessmertnykh, Evgenia Shapovalova, Natalya Matveeva;
skating- Olga Fatkulina, Alexandra Rumyantseva, Artem Kuznetsov;
luge- Tatyana Ivanova, Albert Demchenko.

The results of another 11 Sochi Olympians are still annulled; their guilt in violating anti-doping rules is considered established, but their lifelong Olympic ban has been replaced by missing only one Olympics.

“In 11 cases, the evidence collected was considered sufficient to support disqualifications. The IOC decisions in these cases were confirmed with one exception: the athletes were found to be disqualified for the next Games in Pyeongchang instead of a lifetime ban from the Olympic Games,” the CAS verdict reads.

Found guilty:

It is also indicated that the arbitration will consider the cases of three Russian biathletes Olga Zaitseva, Olga Vilukhina and Yana Romanova after the Olympic Games.

Previously, the IOC found 43 Russian athletes who participated in the Sochi Games guilty of violating anti-doping rules, canceled their results from the 2014 Olympics and banned them for life from participating in the Games.

The decisions were made based on the results of the work of the IOC commission led by Denis Oswald, which was involved in rechecking the doping samples of Russians from the home Games.

As a result, Russia lost 13 Olympic medals in Sochi and lost first place in the medal standings.

Let us note that the basis for imposing sanctions against the Sochi Olympians for the IOC commission, bypassing the presumption of innocence, was only suspicions that they had violated anti-doping rules. With clean doping samples from athletes, the containers for storing them in most cases did not even have signs of tampering (scratches) or any other anomalies.

CAS held hearings on the cases of 39 Russian athletes who were sanctioned by the IOC at the end of January.

Reaction of athletes and officials: now we are just happy

“Of course, the news is excellent, but I don’t even have the strength and emotions to rejoice anymore - I’m exhausted for the year. But I’m happy, of course. As for the Olympics, now the decision is up to the IOC - whether to invite me or not, if they invite me, then I’ll go, of course,” said "R-Sport" Olympic champion of the Sochi Games, skeletonist Alexander Tretyakov.

“I’m happy that all charges against me were dropped, a weight has been lifted from my shoulders. I’m very happy now. It’s a shame for the guys who were left behind - as many as 11 people. But I still won’t go to the Olympics, I don’t qualify for the quota. We only have two people are going. I won’t watch the Games themselves, I now have a very strange attitude towards them,” skeleton athlete Olga Potylitsyna admitted to the “Championship.”

“I’m happy, as if I won this medal again,” Elena Nikitina, bronze medalist of the 2014 Games in skeleton, told Sport Express. “We were really looking forward to such a decision. This is a normal court, and not some incomprehensible commission. "Since facts were taken into account, and not speculation. Of course, there is and could not be any evidence of our guilt. This is the result."

“From the very beginning, we insisted that our athletes were not involved in any doping fraud, and, of course, now we are simply happy that their good name was restored by the court and all their awards were returned to them,” Interfax quotes the head of the Olympic Committee Russia Alexander Zhukov.

"And the guys and all of us are glad that justice has finally been served. Today's CAS decisions confirm that many who were accused are "clean" athletes. The athletes who fought for their rights and finally won are certainly happy and "They are looking forward to continuing their career. They hope that the IOC will accept the CAS decisions and give them the unconditional right to participate in the upcoming Olympic Games," Russian Sports Minister Pavel Kolobkov told TASS.

“The information received about the decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport regarding our athletes confirms that vigorous actions to defend rights both in court and in other categories are justified, can be effective and should continue. And we hope that, of course, these actions will continue "- RIA Novosti quotes the reaction of the press secretary of the Russian President Dmitry Peskov.

The next stage should be claims in civil courts

Chairman of the State Duma Committee on physical culture, sports, tourism and youth affairs, Mikhail Degtyarev called on athletes and coaches to continue to defend their honor by filing suits for defamation and protection of dignity in civil courts.

“The restoration of the rights of some of our athletes gives them a chance to take part in the Olympic Games in Pyeongchang, and we hope for new victories and medals. We were counting on positive decisions in court. We should always go to court, because silence means agreement with decisions taken or accusations. The next stage should be lawsuits in civil courts in order to refute the false theses of the McLaren report and protect the honor and dignity of athletes and coaches,” he told Sport-Express.