Wed, February 03, 2021

WADA confirms it did not appeal CAS decision regarding Russian Anti-Doping Agency

The World Anti-Doping Agency has confirmed that it did not appeal the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision in their case against the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) which declared them non-compliant with the WADA Code.

The CAS decision was made in December 2020 and has WADA confirmed that the deadline to appeal this decision to the Swiss Federal Tribunal passed without any appeal being filed. A WADA statement said “following unanimous advice from in-house and external legal counsels, WADA strongly believes an appeal would have served no useful purpose and decided to refrain from doing so.”

The grounds of appeal to the Swiss Federal Tribunal are limited to the following issues: procedural matters such as jurisdiction, the composition of the Panel and the right to be heard. The Swiss Federal Tribunal does not conduct a review of the merits and would therefore not interfere with the Panel's assessment of the proportionality of the consequences.

As a result of RUSADA being declared non-compliant with the WADA Code an initial four-year ban had been imposed on Russia from all major sporting events including the Tokyo Olympics and FIFA World Cup in Qatar. However, the CAS decision has reduced the ban to a two-year period, meaning that whilst Russia is still banned from the Tokyo Olympics and Qatar World Cup they will be allowed to compete at major international events after the ban ends on 16 December 2022.

You can read the WADA statement here.