WADA Initiates Plans to Resurrect Rule 45, Olympic Ban of Suspended Athletes

LAUSANNE, Switzerland, June 3. AS hinted at when IOC Rule 45 was first stricken down last October by the Court of Arbitration for Sport due to its double jeopardy nature, the World Anti-Doping Agency has initiated the process to resurrect the rule in a different format.

On June 27, 2008, the IOC Executive Board instituted Rule 45, which stated that any athlete with an anti-doping suspension of more than six months would automatically be banned from the next Olympic Games following the END of the suspension. CAS ruled that the application of Rule 45 was invalid and unenforceable since it was wholly separate from the initial punishment process, and violated the World Anti-Doping Code's protection against extra punishment being levied after a sanction has already been served.

CAS' ruling did, however, leave the door wide open for WADA to circle back with an amendment to the WADC. In so doing, the amendment would create a situation in which an Olympic ban is part of a single sanction, and not legislatively seen as two separate sanctions. And, that is exactly what WADA is looking to do.

According to Inside the Games:

“A new clause in the draft code, 10.15, titled “Limitation on Participation in the Olympic Games'' says in serious doping cases “as an additional sanction, the athlete or other person shall be ineligible to participate in the next Summer Olympic Games and the next Winter Olympic Games taking place after the end of the period of ineligibility otherwise imposed.”

This new amendment will be proposed in Fall of 2013, with a target implementation date to be in 2015. No definitions of what “serious doping cases” have been explained.

WADA's move is twofold. First, to reintroduce the Olympic ban to strengthen current anti-doping suspensions. Second, to create legislative harmony within the Olympic movement by adding such a ban to the global code, and not within each individual national governing body.

Full text of Inside the Games article.

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