IOC EB REJECTS COMPLAINT AGAINST WORLD TRIATHLON AND ITS PRESIDENT, MARISOL CASADO

The IOC Executive Board (EB), which met today for a consultative meeting to prepare for future meetings, received a report from the IOC Ethics Commission with regard to a complaint filed on behalf of the five members of the World Triathlon Tribunal against Marisol Casado, World Triathlon (WT) President and IOC Member; Antonio Arimany and Bernard St-Jean, respectively WT Secretary General and Chair of the WT Legal and Constitution Committee.

The complaint firstly refers to a WT Tribunal decision dated 4 May 2020 regarding a triathlon competition in Havana (Cuba). It alleges that the WT officials attempted to find an illegal way to have this WT Tribunal decision "re-judged" by another panel. In the meantime, a national federation appealed this decision to the CAS, and this appeal is currently pending.

Secondly, the complaint alleges a breach in sincerity for the upcoming elections for the WT Tribunal, by failing to inform the current WT Tribunal members about the election and the arrangements for this.

The IOC Ethics Commission noted that both parts of the complaint were not related to the IOC, and recalled that the Commission has jurisdiction to look into IF officials’ activities regarding ethical principles only when such activities take place as part of the IF’s relations with the IOC (as per Rule 25 of the Olympic Charter and the IOC Code of Ethics’ scope of application vis-à-vis the IFs and their officials).

The IOC Ethics Commission also stressed that, as there was no evidence of any personal unethical behaviour by Mrs Marisol Casado, there was no reason for the Commission to intervene in this situation, which is purely an IF internal matter.

Based on the recommendations of the IOC Ethics Commission, the IOC EB today decided to:

reject the complaint against World Triathlon, which is outside the scope of application of the IOC Ethics Commission and the IOC; and

reject the complaint against Mrs Marisol Casado, IOC Member, as no breach of the IOC’s ethical principles has been demonstrated.

For reference, the same complaint was previously filed by the same people with the Association of Summer Olympic International Federations (ASOIF) Governance Task Force, which explained that neither ASOIF nor its Governance Task Force had any capacity to be involved in such a complaint.

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