Lausanne, 19 June 2015 - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has today issued its decision inthe arbitration procedures between Vanessa Vanakorn and the Fédération Internationale de Ski (FIS).
In the first procedure (sanctions against the athlete), the CAS Panel found that there was insufficientevidence to hold that Vanessa Vanakorn had breached the FIS Betting and other Anti-CorruptionViolations Rules (FIS BAC Rules) and as a consequence, annulled her four-year ban. However, theCAS Panel dismissed her second appeal against the FIS Council (cancellation of competitions) whichconfirms that she was ineligible to compete in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
In January 2014, shortly before the cut-off date for qualification to the Sochi Olympic Winter Games,four ladies giant slalom competitions were held in Krvavec, Slovenia, one of them being listed as the"Thai Junior National Championships". Such races were organised by the Alpine Ski Club TriglavKranj, with the support of the Thai Olympic Committee, and registered as FIS races, to give her a finalopportunity to reach the level of FIS Points required for participation in the 2014 Sochi Games. On thebasis of her results in such races, Ms Vanakorn qualified and participated in the 2014 Olympic WinterGames as a Thai athlete. In March 2014, the Ski Association of Slovenia reviewed the fourcompetitions and passed a report to the FIS. The FIS Hearing Panel found a number of breaches of theFIS BAC Rules and sanctioned five officials with one-year bans from participating in FIS sanctionedevents worldwide, and Ms Vanakorn with a four-year ban from participating in FIS sanctioned eventsworldwide.
In November 2014, acting on the FIS Hearing Panel’s decision, the FIS Council annulled the fourcompetitions and ordered that any and all points earned by the participating competitors be deleted.Accordingly, without the points earned in the Slovenian competitions, Ms Vanakorn did not have the necessary FIS point performance level to be eligible to participate in the 2014 Sochi Olympic WinterGames.
On 1 December 2014, Vanessa Vanakorn filed appeals at the CAS against the decisions taken by theFIS Hearing Panel on 6 November 2014 and by the FIS Council on 18 November 2014, seeking theannulment of both decisions.
The procedures were referred to a CAS Panel composed of: Prof. Dr. Martin Schimke, Germany(President), Mr Patrice Brunet, Canada, and Mr Mark Hovell, UK. The parties, their representatives,experts and witnesses were heard by the Panel at a hearing held at the CAS headquarters in Lausanneon 3 and 4 March 2015.
In its decision, the CAS Panel accepted the position of the FIS that a number of irregularities hadoccurred in the organisation and management of the four races in question, but could not find, to itscomfortable satisfaction, evidence of any manipulation by Vanessa Vanakorn herself that justified theguilty finding and the imposition of a four-year ban. Accordingly, the decision of the FIS HearingPanel in relation to Ms Vanakorn is annulled and her four-year ban is lifted.
Turning to the second appeal, the CAS Panel held that the competitions in Krvavec, notwithstandingthe fact that Ms Vanakorn herself was not guilty of any manipulation, were so defective that theirresults and qualification points gained therefrom could not stand. The CAS Panel found that inannulling the competitions and the points earned therein, the FIS Council had acted within thediscretion afforded to it in the FIS BAC rules. Consequently, the second appeal is dismissed and thedecision of the FIS Council is confirmed which means that Vanessa Vanakorn remains ineligible tocompete in the Sochi 2014 Olympic Winter Games.
For further information related to the CAS activity and procedures in general, please contact either Mr Matthieu
Reeb, CAS Secretary General, or Ms Katy Hogg, Communications Officer. Château de Béthusy, Avenue de
Beaumont 2, 1012 Lausanne, Switzerland. media@tas-cas.org; Tel: (41 21) 613 50 00; fax: (41 21) 613 50 01,
or consult the CAS website: www.tas-cas.org
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