A champion German speed skater has "lost a closely watched case that could have upended decades of how sports disputes are resolved and how governing bodies police themselves," according to Ahmed & Jones of the FINANCIAL TIMES. Since its founding in '84, the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, Switzerland, has been "accepted as the sporting world’s supreme court." On Tuesday, the Bundesgerichtshof, Germany’s federal supreme court, ruled against Claudia Pechstein, a former Olympic Gold Medalist "who is seeking redress over a doping charge that she denies." Judges overturned a lower court’s decision that questioned the independence of CAS, and "could have led to athletes bypassing the organisation in future in the search for justice." The ruling said, "The CAS is a 'real' tribunal for arbitration." It added that rather than having fundamentally conflicting interests, "the global fight against doping is in the interest of both the organisations and those of athletes" (FT, 6/7). REUTERS' Karolos Grohmann reported the five-time Olympic champion was seeking more than €4M ($4.6M) "in damages from the ISU after it banned her for two years in 2009 over irregular blood results, although the German never failed a drugs test." She insisted, "providing extensive scientific data, that she had a hereditary blood condition that her father also had." Her case "had been seen as a litmus test -- a win potentially would have triggered a flood of doping cases being challenged in domestic courts around the world and eroding the position of CAS." The Federal Court said that an arbitration agreement between her and the ISU at the time she had tested positive, "which ruled out taking the case to a domestic court, was valid." The skater said that "she would now take the case to the next stage, the Federal Constitutional Court" (REUTERS, 6/7). The BELFAST TELEGRAPH reported a "visibly distressed Pechstein left the courtroom in Karlsruhe without comment." Tuesday's ruling "prevents her from seeking compensation from the ISU." Later, Pechstein returned to say, "Every refugee that enters Germany and gets registered enjoys legal protection. But we athletes don't." The ruling said that Pechstein "has no right to seek redress from German courts." The court said, "The plaintiff signed the arbitration agreement of her own free will. The fact that she was required by others to do so, or else she wouldn't have been able to compete, doesn't invalidate the agreement." Pechstein called that part of the ruling a "farce," and said that "it was common knowledge that athletes who do not sign the agreement are not allowed to compete internationally" (BELFAST TELEGRAPH, 6/7).
