PtG Article 15.10.2019

Doping decisions: In pursuit of uniform sentencing

Similar doping offences don’t always result in similar sanctions. At Play the Game 2019, speakers discussed how to ensure that the punishments are consistent.

After British heavyweight boxer Dillian Whyte was accused of doping in 2012, he engaged attorney Gregory Ioannidis to represent him. Whyte had tested positive for the banned stimulant, MHA, which was contained in a dietary supplement he’d taken. Whyte’s circumstances were remarkably similar to those of Bulgarian tennis player Dimitar Kutrovsky, who had also taken a dietary supplement containing MHA. Neither men had received an anti-doping education, both knew the source of the MHA, and both were able to show that their performance had not been enhanced.

Kutrovsky’s case was the first to be heard. He had initially been banned for two years by the International Tennis Federation (ITF), but in 2012 his sanction was reduced to 15 months on appeal by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).Whyte’s case, which was heard by the UK’s National Anti-Doping Panel (NADP), resulted in a two-year ban that was upheld on appeal.

The discrepancy between the two sentences is by no means unique, Ioannidis told at Play the Game 2019. In many cases, he said, similar doping circumstances can result in different sanctions by different bodies. Part of the reason for this, he said, is that legal precedents are rarely applied across the national boundaries and sports associations. Each case is heard on its own merits, and in Whyte’s case the NADP was under no obligation to follow CAS’s lead.

In Ioannidis’s view, a recognition of precedents across national sports associations and borders would improve legal certainty for athletes and reduce the number of decisions that are seen as “unfair”. CAS, he pointed out, already operates an unofficial system of judicial precedent as its panels frequently refer to previous decisions and are reluctant to depart from them. Were CAS to adopt an official system of judicial precedent, he said, the result could be a better alignment of decisions by national bodies, with CAS serving as the ‘supreme court of sport’.

“Adherence to binding precedents from CAS could go a long way to harmonising the system,“ US Attorney Howard Jacobs told. “It could lead to the first instance decision process being improved and made more professional. Similar circumstances would deliver similar sanctions. With precedents coming from CAS, there could also be fewer appeals. CAS panels would need to view their role differently, as they would be providing guidance to first instance tribunals.”

Jack Anderson of the University of Melbourne told Play the Game 2019 that a new national sports tribunal for Australia is currently in the process of being established.

CAS, he said, is seen by many as prohibitively expensive, and not user friendly. The new tribunal, he said, will rule on doping and other sports-related cases and appeals and will have the power to compel witnesses. Initially, he said, bodies with their own tribunals and Olympic associations were unlikely to place themselves under the tribunal’s jurisdiction. However, over the longer term it could prove a more attractive option than CAS. 

Other news from Play the Game 2019

PtG Article 20.02.2020
Massive backing from participants to the first Play the Game conference outside Europe
Erin Willson
PtG Article 25.10.2019
The struggle for safe sport in Canada: one step forward, two steps back
Anas Anas presenting at conference
PtG Article 24.10.2019
Sports betting: What are the odds on a fix?
Nikki Dryden
PtG Article 16.10.2019
Athlete activism: defending the right to protest
Conference speakers
PtG Article 16.10.2019
The great doping battle
Nancy Hogshead-Makar
PtG Article 16.10.2019
Nancy Hogshead-Makar receives the Play the Game Award 2019
PtG Article 16.10.2019
Play the Game 2019 on tour to USOPC training hub
PtG Article 16.10.2019
NCAA must strive to benefit student athletes
PtG Comment 16.10.2019
IAAF shares viewpoints on Semenya after Play the Game 2019 debate
PtG Comment 16.10.2019
Open letter to IOC President Thomas Bach from athlete organisations
PtG Article 15.10.2019
What it means to blow the whistle
PtG Article 15.10.2019
The role of team doctors in professional sport
PtG Article 15.10.2019
Tackling threats to grassroots sport
PtG Article 15.10.2019
Broken Trust premieres at Play the Game 2019
PtG Article 15.10.2019
The U.S. questions how to measure good governance in sport
PtG Article 15.10.2019
Whistleblowing: Minimising the risks
PtG Article 14.10.2019
Interview with David Howman
PtG Article 14.10.2019
Interview with Linda Helleland
PtG Article 14.10.2019
Athletes must be heard
PtG Article 14.10.2019
Good Governance: Just another buzz phrase?
PtG Article 14.10.2019
Will the Sports Governance Observer bring changes to world sport?
PtG Comment 14.10.2019
New standards of sports governance: When will sport join the modern world in embracing democracy?
PtG Comment 14.10.2019
Good governance – the new sport mantra
PtG Article 13.10.2019
Sport: A safe haven for athletes?
PtG Article 13.10.2019
Interview with Yuliya and Vitaly Stepanov
PtG Article 13.10.2019
Russian whistleblower: “The fight is not over yet”
PtG Article 13.10.2019
Athletes' voices: breakthrough or breakdown?
PtG Article 13.10.2019
Time’s up: Athlete power on the rise!
PtG Comment 13.10.2019
Athlete activism: An omen for sport in the 2020's?
Børn spiller fodbold
PtG Article 08.10.2019
The global challenge of growing sports

Related articles

Doctor testing blood
PtG Opinion 03.10.2024
Using data from doping controls to monitor the testosterone thresholds of intersex and trans athletes violates data protection laws
Chines top swimmer
PtG Opinion 26.07.2024
The pill that contaminated anti-doping worldwide
Zhang Yufe
PtG Article 05.07.2024
WADA and USADA are embroiled in a bitter fight over Chinese case that affects everyone in anti-doping
The Stepanovs at Play the Game conference in 2019
PtG Article 04.04.2024
Ten years of trouble for a whistleblower couple on the run from Russian retribution
Faraz Shahlaei
PtG Article 20.02.2024
The Russian doping scandal has exposed the weaknesses in the international anti-doping structure
Panel on anti-doping
PtG Article 16.02.2024
CEO of USADA: "There is a lot we could do to ease the burden on the athletes"
Travis Tygart
PtG Article 07.02.2024
US anti-doping director: There is an incredible need for an anti-crime agency in sport
Martin Dubbey
PtG Article 06.02.2024
Could voice analytics be anti-doping’s new weapon?
Alex Schwacer walking
PtG Article 16.12.2022
Race walker Alex Schwazer continues his fight against sport's jurisprudence system
Anders Solheim, CEO, Anti-Doping Norway
PtG Article 30.06.2022
Punishing athletes should not be the only approach to tackling anti-doping
Speaker
PtG Article 29.06.2022
Proposal for independent sports integrity body to be unveiled in September
PtG Article 30.06.2021
New report documents governance standards in anti-doping in 11 countries
Yulia and Vitaly Stepanov
PtG Article 28.04.2021
Whistleblowers call on the UN to close human rights gap in sport
Alex Schwazer at a press conference
PtG Article 19.04.2021
Italians rally to support an athlete acquitted in court and sanctioned by sport
Alex Schwazer
PtG Analysis 19.04.2021
Schwazer vs. Sport: A race walker’s long and winding route towards doping rehabilitation
Conference panel
PtG Article 06.04.2021
Save the date: New data and debate on anti-doping governance
Yuriy Ganus
PtG Article 19.01.2021
The character assassination of an anti-doping advocate
Russia at the Olympics opening ceremony
PtG Opinion 18.12.2020
CAS on Russia: WADA won the battle, but lost the power to push victory through
Tamas Ajan
PtG Article 12.11.2020
FBI and Swiss police dig into weightlifting scandal, while IOC is undecided
Thomas Bach
PtG Article 05.11.2019
IOC-President calls for sanctions of athletes’ entourage
Conference speakers
PtG Article 16.10.2019
The great doping battle
PtG Article 15.10.2019
What it means to blow the whistle
PtG Article 13.10.2019
Russian whistleblower: “The fight is not over yet”
PtG Comment 16.03.2018
The Sochi Games was just a copy of the Moscow Games
The Stepanovs and Hajo Seppelt
PtG Article 29.11.2017
The Stepanovs and Hajo Seppelt receive the Play the Game Award
PtG Article 29.10.2013
West Germany considered pumping swimmers full of air
Laura Robinson and Sandro Donati
PtG Article 01.11.2007
Sandro Donati wins Play the Game Award 2007
PtG Article 08.11.2005
BALCO - the scandal that changed the US view on doping
Pills
PtG Article 11.11.2002
Doping Trade: Business for The Big Ones
PtG Article 01.01.1997
What is wrong with doping?