The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in Switzerland has announced that it is just about ready to release its decision on the matter of the British Olympic Association versus the World Anti-Doping Association surrounding its interpretation of compliance, according to a release (read below).
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will publish its decision in the arbitration between the British Olympic Association (BOA) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) in the week commencing 30 April 2012.
The exact date of publication will be noted here as soon as it is known.
The decision involves WADA’s decision to declare the British Olympic Association non-compliant ahead of their own 2012 London Olympics. The declaration was made after Britain decided to enforce their own version of the now-defunct IOC Rule 45 that the CAS declared was a violation of the WADA code last October.
That rule stated that any athlete who received a doping-related suspension of greater than 6-months would be ineligible to compete at the next Olympic Games. After the CAS decided that would be double jeopardy against the accused (twice punished, one of which is outside of the bounds of the agreed-upon World Anti-Doping Code), Britain decided that they wanted to continue to keep those accused of serious offenses (most suspensions over 6 months are more than accidental) off of their team.
The perspective of Britain is one of sovereignty, where they feel as though they have the right to decide who does and does not represent the nation at the Olympics.
WADA’s retort has been one more surrounded by strict-logic and administration. Each of the Olympic nations agreed to the World Anti-Doping Code and agreed to abide by it; they’ve further agreed to allow WADA, as an enforcement body not a legislative body, to declare which nations are compliant and non-compliant; and as a result of the CAS ruling, they’ve made themselves non-compliant. Ipso Facto, WADA has done nothing wrong in declaring the BOA non-compliant by authority of the BOA’s own signature.
(For more information on the debate, see the red links above).
Another part of that agreement is that the CAS should have the final word in this case, so the BOA would presumably have to accept the ruling or risk banishment from their own Olympics. Though, there’s no guarantees that this is the end of the road or that they will have felt exhausted of their legal options.