The Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS), the final body in resolving most sporting disputes in matters both of competition and of anti-doping rules violations, has opened its temporary office in Jakarta, Indonesia at the main site of the 2018 Asian Games.
The event will begin on August 18th, 2018 and last for 16 days, with the swimming portion of the competition running from August 19th-24th.
Setting up remote offices at major events has become part of the CAS’ routine in the last few years, as a means to expedite hearings that impact an athlete’s or team’s ability to continue competition. In their words, “the temporary CAS office in Jakarta has been created to ensure that
participants have free access to justice rendered within time limits that keep pace with the competitions.”
Hearings before the CAS often take months, if not longer, to be heard, which could unfairly prevent an athlete from competing if they win their arbitration. Two offices were set up at the 2016 Olympic Games, which became of particular importance as they heard expedited proceedings on the cases of Russian athletes, who had shortly before been barred from competition at the Games if they had ever tested positive. The CAS wound up hearing the cases of 4 Russian swimmers, Yulia Efimova, Vladimir Morozov, Nikita Lobintsev, and Daria Ustinova, via their Rio Ad Hoc office. They also upheld the provisional suspension of Xinyi Chen of China, who tested positive at the games.
Not all matters are around doping, however; the Rio Olympics Ad Hoc office also upheld the disqualification of France’s Aurelie Muller from the women’s 10km open water race after making physical contact with Italy’s Rachele Bruni.
The arbitrators on hand at the event:
- Michael Lenard – USA (President of Division)
- Jahangir Beglari – Iran
- Xianhue Bai – China
- Idwan Ganie – Indonesia
- Enrico Ingles – Philippines
- Anthony Lo Surdo – Australia
- Yuri Yagi – Japan
CAS Secretary General Matthieu Reeb will head the office.
The ad hoc divisions of the CAS aim to render decisions within 24 hours as a result of specially-designed logistics and organizational structures put in place.
The office will be open from August 14th through September 2nd.