The Russian doping scandal at the court of arbitration for sport: lessons for the world anti-doping system

Abstract

The Russian doping scandal that rocked the sporting world during the past 2 years is far from over. The World Anti-Doping Agency is still in turmoil over its total failure to discover the Russian doping scheme and the International Olympic Committee and other Sports Governing Bodies are still struggling to find the appropriate response to Russia’s total disregard of the spirit and letter of the World Anti-Doping Code. Yet the recent publications of a string of awards related to the scandal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) provides us with the opportunity to offer some preliminary reflections on the role of the CAS in dealing with the consequences of the scandal for the world anti-doping system at large. This article will analyse the relevant CAS awards in a chronological order. It will start with the ‘IAAF Award’, before turning to the awards rendered by the CAS ad hoc Division in Rio, and finishing with the ‘IPC award’. The modest ambition of this paper is to retrace the reasoning used by the CAS panels and to analyse its broader consequences for the practical operation of the world anti-doping system.