Olympic Court rules on 49er Sailing appeal Saturday

The Court of Arbitration for Sport, the highest sports tribunal, will decide tomorrow on an appeal by teams from Italy and Spain to have gold medal-winner Denmark disqualified from sailing’s 49er class.

The court is also hearing a request by Ara Abrahamian -- the Swedish wrestler who had his bronze medal stripped for throwing it away -- on whether the sport’s governing body failed to follow its own regulations by refusing to accept his protest against a semifinal loss and to sanction the officials.

“All cases are important but the sailing will focus the attention on CAS now because it’s a gold medal at stake,” Matthieu Reeb, the court’s secretary general, said in a phone interview yesterday.

The Lausanne, Switzerland-based court, which this year heard appeals from double-amputee runner Oscar Pistorius, cyclist Floyd Landis and sprinter Justin Gatlin, had until now been dealing mostly with low-key cases in the Chinese capital.

Its Beijing office, which opened July 31 to rule on Games- related disputes including drug use, discipline and judging, made six rulings before full Olympic competition started Aug. 9. Three of those were failed attempts by Azerbaijan’s Olympic Committee to get its women’s hockey team into the Games.

The most high-profile case for Reeb, and his 13 experts in sports law and arbitration, may yet come after Usain Bolt won the 200 meters two days ago in a race where the silver and bronze medalists were disqualified for running out of their lanes.

Martina’s Medal
The Olympic Committee of the Netherlands Antilles said it’s assessing its options after Churandy Martina was stripped of a silver -- the Caribbean nation’s second Olympic medal. The matter may eventually end up before the CAS, said Imro van Wilgen, the committee’s secretary general.

“We have to get all the facts, put it in front of our legal adviser, and see what comes out of it,” Van Wilgen said in an interview.
Reeb said a panel would only review the case if correct procedure wasn’t followed by the track’s governing body in disqualifying Martina.

“CAS will not entertain appeals against field-of-play decisions,” Reeb added. “If it’s more a question of compliance with procedural rules within the federation, then this is something we could entertain.”

Borrowed Boat
That’s what the Spanish and Italian teams will bring up, when they contend that the Danish 49er crew shouldn’t have been awarded the gold after borrowing Croatia’s boat for the deciding race when their mast snapped. Spain and Italy finished in second and fourth place in the race.

The court, founded 24 years ago as the brainchild of former International Olympic Committee President Juan Antonio Samaranch, has provided Olympians with an on-site legal avenue since the Atlanta Games in 1996.
Under IOC control until 1994, the court changed its administration after a Swiss Federal Tribunal questioned its impartiality. It’s now run by the International Council of Arbitration for Sport, which consists of 20 jurists including former World Anti-Doping Agency chief Dick Pound.
Speedy decisions are important because disputes must be settled within a timeframe that keeps pace with Olympic competition, Reeb said.
Generally, decisions take a maximum 24 hours.
“It makes a lot of sense to have an on-site presence,” said Jim Dwyer, the permanent secretary of the CAS’s Oceania Registry in Sydney. “Things get dealt with very quickly.”
Pro Bono
The arbitrators aren’t paid for their work in Beijing. Instead, they get a lump sum to cover expenses including meals and travel, Reeb said. He declined to say how much.
“It’s almost a pro bono activity,” Reeb said.
Before Olympic competition began, the court had made its mark on who was and wasn’t there.
It ruled that German tennis player Rainer Schuettler be allowed to compete even after he failed to meet the qualifying criteria set by the sport. The International Tennis Federation said the decision was “very disturbing” and may harm the right of sports groups to set qualifying standards.