Braden Keith contributed to this report.
South Korean swimmer Park Tae Hwan filed an appeal today at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) against the Korean Olympic Committee (KOC) and the Korean Swimming Federation (KSF).
The Korean Sport Olympic Committee barred him from competing in the 2016 Olympic Games, even though his 18-month suspension for a positive doping test in 2014 has expired.
The appeal involves a KSOC rule that forbids athletes from competing for any national team for 3 years after a doping suspension.
Park is seeking an urgent ruling by July 8th, the cut-off date for selection to the Korean Olympic team.
While the grounds for the appeal wasn’t specifically stated, the appeal is likely on similar grounds to a 2011 appeal by the United States Olympic Committee (USOC). At the time, the USOC was appealing on behalf of track athlete LaShawn Merritt and fighting a rule by the International Olympic Committee (IOC) that would prevent any athlete with a doping ban of longer than 6 months to compete at the next Olympic Games.
The CAS at the time ruled that this new ‘Rule 45″ put in place by the IOC amounted to double sanction by punishing an athlete twice for one violation. While at the time the CAS commented that their objection wasn’t one on philosophical grounds, but rather that by the rules of the World Anti-Doping Code (which both the USOC and IOC signed), a second punishment was not allowed. It was suggested that the IOC instead of adding Rule 45 to its own charter instead make a push to have the World Anti-Doping Code amended.
No such amendment has come into effect since.
As much as we hate it……this dude is going to Rio. Let’s do our best to ignore him when he come 6th in the 400m free.
dude he doped once, not at London or Beijing, have a sense of forgiveness, he’s not lance Armstrong. i know way more about cycling than i do swimming, and ill tell you. Frankie Andreu doped and now a few years later he’s help in a huge way to change the face of cycling in a positive way. i guarantee you drug tests before and after the race, and the guy has had enough punishment to have learned from his mistakes. i cant force you to not hate him but im just trying to bring in another perspective.
The South Korean federation is attempting to reclaim its national honor, and should be commended for refusing to add Park to the Olympic team. Not many countries remember what honor is, but apparently South Korea does.
The real travesty here is the fact that his suspension was only 18 months in the first place, which was obviously intended to allow him to swim in the Olympics. Efimova’s shortened suspension, which conveniently allowed her to compete in Kazan in 2015, was equally bogus.