Today is Lausanne, Switzerland we started off the day by visiting
the Tribunal Arbitral du Sport more commonly known as the CAS of the court of
Arbitration for Sport. We met with a lawyer named Brent Nowicki who works on
cases there who happened to be from Buffalo, New York. He was taking over
hosting us from someone who previously worked there and was a Syracuse
Graduate. Brent played lacrosse at Fairfield university and then went to law
school and worked at a law firm. He was hired by the player’s association of
the Premier Lacrosse League on the side and fell in love with working in law
with sports whether it was endorsements or arbitration or things like that. He applied
for an opening position for a lawyer at CAS and has now been there about 7
years and says “I love every second of my job. I never wake up and think, ‘ Man
I have to go to work today’.”
Us posing with Brent and his new Syracuse hat as a thank you
Brent told us a lot of very interesting things about the
CAS. He explained how they operate with arbitration, both sides show up for the
case and it is ruled on between 1 or 3 arbitrators depending on what the
parties in the case decide. The CAS has around three hundred and fifty
different arbitrators who they cycle through and call in based on a variety of
factors such as race, gender, background and sports knowledge. The laws that
are applied to each case vary significantly depending on the type of case and
where it originated. They could even refer to the laws of that country in their
rulings. Often the world committee for that sport makes a ruling before the CAS
does and the CAS mostly handles appeals outside of the Olympic Games but the
CAS might rule differently on a case or appeal than another organization.
One of the main cases that people kept asking questions
about was the recent ruling of CAS against Caster Semenya. She is a South
African middle distance runner who is externally a female, but was born with
internal male parts, mainly testicles. These male parts produce an abnormal
amount of testosterone giving her a competitive advantage over females because
she had testosterone levels closer to men and she has never lost a race. The
IAAF ruled that she had to suppress her natural hormone levels to the level of
normal women, taking away her natural advantage/ capabilities. She appealed
this to the CAS, but the CAS ruled in the IAAF’s favor. This was a very
controversial case in sport.
Next, we went to the World Excellence center for archery to
take a tour and try out archery ourselves. We saw someone training outside and
shooting at the Olympic distance of 70 meters. We toured all of the world class
facility including weight and massage rooms, food and game rooms, and room for
company events that get held there. We learned how to shoot the bows and we had
a lot of fun popping balloons and having competitions against each other.
One of our instructors was a national judge I believe for
the Olympics and the other was an Olympian for Maloui. He put on a shooting demonstration for us
from 70 meter and was consistently shooting and 8 or above. The target was so
far away we had to use a spotting scope to see where he hit. It was incredible
watching him shoot a massive bow.
Written by Andrew Perodeau
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