British Swimming Wins Appeal, Forces FINA to Ratify World Records

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Today, the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled in favor of British Swimming against FINA in ratifying a pair of already-broken world records.

In 2014, Adam Peaty and a British mixed medley relay set world records at the European Championships. All of those involved were drug tested, but doping authorities did not request the full array of testing options and did not test for EPO. FINA elected not to ratify the world records, and British Swimming appealed.

Both records have already been broken, so this is more about keeping the progression line accurately in place.

CAS Press Release:

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has issued its decision in the arbitration procedure between British Swimming and swimmers Adam Peaty, Francesca Halsall, Jemma Lowe and Chris Walker Hebborn (the Athletes) and the Fédération Internationale de Natation (FINA):

The time of 3:44.02 set on 19 August 2014 by Adam Peaty, Francesca Halsall, Jemma Lowe and Chris Walker-Hebborn in the 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay swimming event at the 32nd European Swimming Championships is recognised to constitute the world record at the time it was set.

The time of 26.62 set on 22 August 2014 by Adam Peaty in the 50m Breaststroke swimming event at the 32nd European Swimming Championships is recognised to constitute the world record at the time it was set.

Following the events in question, the Athletes underwent doping controls which did not return any abnormalities. Testing for EPO was conducted only on a selection of the samples provided throughout the championships. That selection did not include the samples taken from the Athletes involved in this matter.

Following requests from British Swimming for the times to be formally recognised by FINA as world records, on 9 August 2015, the Honorary Secretary of FINA informed the Athletes that FINA would not approve them as world records because the swimmers had not been tested for EPO by the testing authority and therefore had not fulfilled all the requirements set out in the applicable regulations for a world record to be recognised. In their appeal to the CAS, the Appellants challenged this decision and requested that it be overturned.

The CAS arbitration was conducted by a panel of arbitrators composed of Prof. Luigi Fumagalli of Milan, Italy (President), Mr Michele Bernasconi of Zurich, Switzerland, and Dr Dirk-Reiner Martens of Munich, Germany.

The CAS Panel unanimously found that the applicable regulations allowed the Honorary Secretary of FINA discretion in recognising world record times, but that in the present case, in contrast to the FINA decision, the absence of EPO tests by the testing authority should not fall to the detriment of the Athletes and lead to the non-recognition of the world records. For this reason, the CAS Panel has granted the appeal and such records shall now be recognized.

The Arbitral Award will be published on the CAS website at a later date.

British Swimming Press Release:

British Swimming has welcomed the Court of Arbitration for Sport decision to grant an appeal against the non-ratification of two world records set by British athletes in 2014.

Swimmers Fran Halsall, Jemma Lowe, Adam Peaty and Chris Walker-Hebborn set a new world record in the 4x100m Mixed Medley Relay at the European Championships in Berlin on 19 August and on 22 August Adam Peaty set a new world record in the Men’s 50m Breaststroke.

On 9 August 2015 FINA notified British Swimming that neither world record would stand due to an error made by a third party in relation to the doping samples given by the athletes at the time of the records.

In granting British Swimming’s appeal and setting aside the decision of FINA, CAS also determined that the times set by the athletes should be reflected within the record books as world records at that time.

CAS also determined that costs for the case should be borne by FINA.

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