Court of Arbitration for Sport and WADA Engage in Public Spat Ahead of Beijing

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and the World Anti-Doping Association (WADA) have gotten into somewhat of a public spat.

The CAS, which is the world’s final arbitrating body for most issues related to sport, released a statement on January 27 after WADA, the global doping watchdog, criticized the way CAS handled doping cases at the Tokyo Olympics in its 44-page independent observers report, which was published on January 20. 

The WADA report criticized “the lack of anti-doping knowledge” of some CAS Anti-Doping Division (CAS ADD) members and said that CAS arbitrators should better understand doping code and the regulations behind doping. 

The WADA report did not identify which CAS ADD members were thought to be lacking the appropriate expertise. 

On Thursday, CAS responded to WADA’s claim that not all CAS judges who worked at the Tokyo Olympics had enough anti-doping experience to handle the caseload. CAS believes that WADA’s recommendations were unnecessary because there was no failure in CAS ADD proceedings in Tokyo.

CAS ADD has written to WADA’s president, Witold Banka, and Director General, Olivier Niggli, expressing that the report written by a group of observers appointed by WADA includes unfair comments and suggestions. 

According to CAS ADD’s statement, “The CAS ADD noted with disappointment that the issues mentioned in the report were not addressed directly to the CAS ADD while in Tokyo, which would have been easier rather than waiting for the publication of the report six months later.”

This is not the first time that the two sides have been at odds. After the CAS depleted the severity of WADA’s suspension of Russia, WADA says that the CAS did not fully explain the reasoning for reducing the penalty.