Kaisa Varis' s lifetime ban overturned on technicality

Kaisa Varis

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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has overturned on a technicality the lifetime ban from the sport handed to Finnish biathlete Kaisa Varis just over a year ago.
      According to CAS, a mistake was made in the analysis of a doping sample, when Varis’s so-called B sample was analysed without Varis or her representative being present.
      According to Varis’s legal advisor Olli Rauste, Varis is free to compete on the international level immediately.
      “Kaisa Varis has now been officially declared innocent of a doping offence in January 2008 by the highest international judgement seat in sports”, Rauste’s announcement states.
     
Varis gave a positive doping sample containing EPO hormone in the Oberhof World Cup event in January 2008.
      Because this was the second time she was caught for using illegal substances, the International Biathlon Union (IBU) imposed on Varis a lifetime ban from the sport.
     
According to CAS, IBU contravened its own and other international antidoping regulations by analysing Varis’s B sample without Varis being present.
      Hence the B sample cannot be accepted as evidence, CAS ruled.
     
Banned EPO hormone was found from Varis’s A sample, which was analysed in accordance with the regulations, as well as from the contested B sample.
      According to Rauste, the CAS ruling did not come as a surprise, because the IBU breach of regulations was clear from the start and in violation of athletes’ fundamental rights.
      “The lesson to be learned from the CAS ruling is that even sports organisations have to adhere to the WADA doping regulations in handling controversial cases.”
     
In 2003 Varis was caught using EPO just before the Nordic Skiing World Championships. At that time she was banned from that sport for two years.
      The Finnish Biathlon Association is to consider its position vis-a-vis Varis at a meeting in May. It is unclear whether the athlete will indeed attempt to make a comeback in the sport. also unclear at present is whether there will be a claim for compensation.
      In any event, since the events of 2008, anti-doping regulations have been adjusted such that a B sample is always analysed within a certain number of days from the A sample, with the athlete having the option to be present in person or represented, but written consent is sufficient. What has widely been seen as a legal loophole is no longer valid.


Previously in HS International Edition:
  Kaisa Varis given lifetime ban by International Biathlon Union (12.2.2008)

Links:
  Kaisa Varis (Wikipedia)

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