Related case:
CAS 2018_O_5754 Sergey Fedorovtsev vs RUSADA, WADA & FISA
June 26, 2020
The parties to this doping-related dispute included a former Russian rower (the Athlete), his international federation, his national antidoping organization, and WADA. Following a CAS award that imposed a four-year suspension on the Athlete, the latter filed a motion to set aside the CAS award for alleged violation of his right to be heard.
This judgment brings nothing new: the CAS Panel had allegedly failed to consider two elements that could have affected the outcome of the dispute, namely the argument that the Athlete and his expert left the laboratory on the basis of false information given by the representatives of the laboratory, and the numerous arguments aimed at demonstrating that any violation committed by the Athlete could only have been unintentional.
On the first argument, the Federal Tribunal found that the Athlete could not establish how this allegedly false information given to the Athlete could have influenced the reasoning and decision of the Arbitral Tribunal, as the Arbitral Tribunal explicitly acknowledged that the Athlete and the expert left the laboratory with the knowledge that the analytical process would be initiated in their absence and without having objected to it.
The Federal Tribunal also dismissed the second element of the plea relating to numerous arguments on the unintentional anti-doping rule violation, to the extent that the Panel had expressly addressed – and rejected – the argument that the substance in dispute was due to the consumption of contaminated dietary supplements.
Despina Mavromati
