The Ad Hoc Division of the Court Of Arbitration For Sport (Cas) registers its first cases in beijing
The Ad hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has registered its first applications in relation to the Olympic Winter Games Beijing 2022.
A first application (OG 22/01) was filed on 26 January 2022 by Megan Henry (skeleton, USA) v/ the International Olympic Committee (IOC). The athlete requested that the IOC and IBSF apply the qualification system implemented in March 2020 and award her a competitive slot in the Women’s Skeleton Event. Such procedure was eventually not pursued after the Appeals Tribunal of the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) notified the athlete of its final decision to deny her petition, and was replaced by a new application of Megan Henry against the IBSF (OG 22/03).
In the new application, Megan Henry requested that the decision of the IBSF Appeals Tribunal be reversed and that a competitive slot in the Women’s Skeleton Event be awarded to her. She also requested that an interim stay of the IBSF decision allocating the last remaining quota place to the United States Virgin Islands be granted pending the outcome of the arbitration.
The Panel of arbitrators appointed to decide this matter, composed of Ms Annabelle Bennett, President, (Australia), Ms Maria A. Gwynn (Paraguay) and Mr Xianyue Bai (P.R. China), will hold a hearing on 30 January 2022. The Panel’s decision is expected to be issued later the same day.
Another application has been also registered:
OG 22/02 Andrei Makhnev, Artem Shuldiakov & Russian Olympic Committee (ROC) v. International Skiing Federation (FIS)
Both moguls skiers could not take part in the World Cup stages in Tremblant, Canada (7-8 January 2022), and Deer Valley USA (12-14 January 2022), as they were not vaccinated with a vaccine recognized in the USA and in Canada. As two moguls qualifying runs took place at each event, the athletes were unable to score points on those occasions. At the end of the qualification period, they were ranked outside the quota of skiers eligible to compete in Beijing. The athletes requested that two unused Olympic quotas obtained by athletes affiliated to the ROC in FIS freestyle disciplines be reallocated to moguls competitions in order to allow them to take part in the moguls competitions at the Beijing Games.
A Panel of arbitrators composed of Mr Jeffrey Benz, President, (USA), Mr Alain Zahlan de Cayetti (France) and Mr Lars Hilliger (Denmark) held a hearing on 28 January 2022. Later the same day, the Panel ruled that the CAS ad hoc Division did not have jurisdiction to hear the matter.
The original press release can be found here:https://www.tas-cas.org/fileadmin/user_upload/CAS_Ad_Hoc_Media_Release_Beijing_1.pdf
