The Ad Hoc Division of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) registered and quickly issued a decision in its first case at the Tokyo Olympics, dismissing swimmer Jennifer Harding-Marlin‘s request to swim the women’s 100 backstroke at the 2020 Games.
The CAS’s Ad Hoc Division has two field offices on-site in Tokyo to handle legal disputes and anti-doping cases that come up during the Olympic Games. The division has been present at the past 13 Summer and Winter Olympics.
Harding-Marlin, a 29-year-old Canadian-born swimmer who holds dual citizenship with St. Kitts and Nevis, requested that the St. Kitts & Nevis Olympic Committee (SKNOC) be directed to nominate her to swim the 100 back in Tokyo under the Universality System. The system allows National Olympic Committees to enter up to one male and one female swimmer to the Games.
Harding-Marlin’s case, which was against both SKNOC and FINA, came due to her alleging that SKNOC had discriminated against her in violation of Rule 44.4 of the Olympic charter; claiming that they had denied her entry to the Games on the basis of race, economic conditions and/or social connections or sporting activity.
Harding-Marlin filed the case with the CAS on Sunday, and the process moved quickly, with a Monday morning hearing ultimately dismissing her application.
The CAS panel found there to be no convincing evidence that SKNOC had discriminated against her, though they did find that the committee could have “been more forthcoming with the athlete and more cooperative in its relations with SKSF (St. Kitts & Nevis Swimming Federation), which is not affiliated to the SKNOC, by directing them to become one of its members and starting an admission procedure.”
“The Panel finds that such approach would be more in line with the Olympic spirit that a national Olympic committee has to promote in its country in accordance with Rule 27 of the Olympic Charter,” the official CAS release says.
Despite that, the Olympic Committee’s actions were still not discriminatory, arbitrary, unfair and/or unreasonable, leaving Harding-Marlin out of the Games.
“In other words, the Appealed Decision might be inappropriate, but it does not constitute an abuse of discretion by the SKNOC.”
The Universality System has received several issues, specifically in swimming, this year, with Siphiwe Baleka‘s case among the most public.
