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CAS

Estonia’s Andrus Veerpalu Guilty of Supporting Doping: Banned Two Years by FIS

  On April 14, the International Ski Federation (FIS) announced former Estonian cross-country skier Andrus Veerpalu was found guilty by the CAS Anti-Doping Division. Veerpalu was involved with “Operation Aderlass”, a blood doping scheme run by Dr. Marc Schmidt in Germany. Veerpalu’s penalty is a two-year ban from FIS sanctioned events ending on March 17, 2023. Now retired from skiing, the fifty-year-old Veerpalu in recent years has served as a coach for team “Haanja” in Estonia....

Full CAS Ruling for WADA v. RUSADA Released

This week, the Court of Arbitration for Sport released its full ruling for the case: World Anti-Doping Agency v. Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA). Last month, CAS made a binding decision on the case that received widespread condemnation from clean sport advocates and applause from within much of the Russian sports community. The cliff notes version of the Dec. 17 ruling halved the penalty from four to two years for Russia. WADA had sought a four-year ban from...

CAS Ruling Removes Lifetime Ban for Three Russian Biathletes

    The Court for Arbitration in Sport (CAS) announced Thursday that three Russian biathletes implicated for doping at the 2014 Sochi Olympics had their lifetime bans overturned. The biathletes in question, Olga Vilukhina, Yana Romanova, and Olga Zaitseva were first handed lifetime bans in 2017 by the International Olympic Committee (IOC).  The McLaren Report included information tying the three athletes to doping. The IOC subsequently ruled the three Russians had committed an ADRV, or...

News Roundup for 8/12/19

New IBU Secretary General Named On August 6th, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) announced Sweden’s Niklas Carlsson as its new Secretary General. At 44-years-old, Carlsson comes to the position with considerable experience in the world of alpine ski racing. According to the IBU press release, Carlsson served as the Secretary-General of the Swedish Ski Federation from 2011-2014. He has also worked for the International Ski Federation (FIS), and served on the Boards of two Swedish...

The EPA and Regulating the Ski Wax Industry

There’s truth in jest as the saying goes. While FasterSkier’s April 1 piece made light of the issues, it hit home in some unexpected places. During one of FasterSkier’s conversations with the Environmental Protection Agency to examine why it had begun investigating the importation and sale of perfluorinated waxes, the EPA’s representatives cited the April 1 piece to question why FasterSkier had begun reporting on the issue. Whether readers appreciated the humor or not, the...

FIS and CAS Anti-Doping Division Sign Agreement

        FIS recently signed an agreement with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that ceded its adjudication power in doping cases to the CAS Anti-Doping Division or ADD. The CAS ADD is touted as a body able to make independent decisions when reviewing suspected doping violations.  Prior to the agreement in early May, the most basic process for adjudicating a FIS initiated doping violation progressed within the organization. Once evidence for...

CAS’s Legkov Reasoning: Finds Rodchenkov’s Testimony Hearsay, Marks on Bottle Not Relevant

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has posted the Court of Arbitration for Sport overturned that ban for Legkov and seven other cross-country skiers. At the time, they did not release many details about how they had come to their decisions. Adding to the confusion was the fact that CAS had upheld the disqualifications for some other athletes, including three biathletes. On Monday, CAS released the details behind its decision in Legkov’s case. In...

More Than Medals: Clean Sport in the ‘Icarus’ Era (Op-Ed)

Editor’s Note: The following thoroughly cited opinion piece, prompted by the 2017 ‘Icarus’ documentary, was written by Maks Zechel, a 20-year-old Canadian cross-country skier who spent the 2017/2018 race season training abroad with Team Asker in Norway. Zechel is a regular contributor at FasterSkier, with his ongoing series: “Closing the Gap”. *** February 23, 2014 Sochi: a home Olympics and the opportunity of a lifetime. Russia, despite being one of the strongest skiing nations in the...

Legkov and Seven Other Skiers’ Doping Bans Overturned by CAS (Updated)

((Update: In accordance with the CAS decision outlined below, thewrote in a press release. “With respect to these 28 athletes, the appeals are upheld, the sanctions annulled and their individual results achieved in Sochi 2014 are reinstated.” The athletes whose results will be reinstated are: 50 k gold medalist and relay silver medalist Alexander Legkov 50 k silver medalist, team sprint and relay silver medalist Maxim Vylegzhanin, also fourth in the 30 k skiathlon relay...

Many Battles Still To Be Fought in Russia Doping Saga

Yesterday, 2014 FIS Anti-Doping Rules, which went into effect on January 1, 2014 (before the Olympics started that February), state that the federation can take action against national ski teams, such as barring athletes from competition or assessing fines, if there is evidence of extensive doping within the team. Article 12.3.1 of the rules state that such action may be taken when “Four or more violations of these Anti-Doping Rules… are committed by Athletes or...

IOC Sanctions Legkov, Belov for Doping in Sochi, Rules Out of 2018 Olympics (Updated x3)

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has ruled that Russian cross-country skiers Alexander Legkov and Evgeniy Belov doped at the 2014 Olympics in Sochi, Russia. The IOC Disciplinary Commission headed by Denis Oswald, referred to as the Oswald Commission, issued a decision today stating that the two athletes had violated Article 2 of the anti-doping rules for Sochi. As a result, Legkov’s gold medal in the 50-kilometer freestyle mass start, the Russian men’s silver medal in the...

Ski World Reacts to Legkov, Belov Punishment (Updated)

This article has been updated to include comments from Canadian World Cup Team member Alex Harvey as told to  on Wednesday. *** As the news spreads of the told Norway’s Nettavisen, according to a translation. “It’s my only Olympic medal. It is clear I will take it.” In an interview with Wieschemann firm stated in its press release on Wednesday. “[It] mocks the declaration of the President of the IOC, Dr. Thomas Bach, to decide only on...

Nine Fascinating Bits from the Legkov CAS Decision (Updated)

Nearly two weeks ago now, the lawyer for Russian cross-country skier Alexander Legkov As we summarized last week, CAS agreed that it was justified for FIS to provisionally suspend Legkov pending further investigations into whether he committed a Anti-Doping Rule Violation (ADRV). However, CAS decided that this provisional suspension could not be infinite and gave it an Oct. 31, 2017, deadline. After that point, FIS must either bring a full ADRV case against Legkov, or...

Why 18 Months? Inside the Johaug Decision

As separately addressed the factual question of what happened that led to Johaug testing positive for the steroid clostebol. That article did not consider the question of why 18 months was the suspension chosen. This piece tries to fill in that gap, by exploring the legal analysis of the CAS decision and the principles that the court applied in reaching this decision. This analysis begins by looking at how criminal sentencing usually works, then applies...

Johaug Will Miss Olympics As CAS Increases Ban to 18 Months

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has made its decision in the case of Norwegian cross-country skier Therese Johaug: “Ms Johaug is suspended for a period of 18 months commencing on 18 October 2016.” That means that Johaug, a seven-time World Champion and a member of the Norwegian gold-medal relay team at the 2010 Olympics, will not be competing at the 2018 Olympics in PyeongChang, South Korea. The full text of the CAS decision...

CAS Gives FIS Until October to Bring Doping Case Against Russian Skiers

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) did one thing that the Russian skiers wanted: they issued a decision of some sort quickly, far more quickly than is typical in doping appeals. Alexander Legkov, Maxim Vylegzhanin, Alexey Petukhov, Evgenia Shapovalova, Julia Ivanova, and Evgeniy Belov han independent investigation commissioned by the World Anti-Doping Agency. In the six months since the provisional suspensions were enacted, FIS has not formally brought Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ARDV’s) against the six...

Sundby Sanctioned for Asthma Medication Use, Stripped of 2015 TdS and Overall World Cup Titles

News broke Wednesday that Martin Johnsrud Sundby, the three-time defending overall World Cup and Tour de Ski champion, had been handed a two-month sanction and disqualified from two races (and his 2015 Tour de Ski and 2015 overall World Cup titles). "I went into the 2015/2016-season knowing I was innocent, and also that I was acquitted," he said in a press conference. "I think the verdict is totally unreasonable."