Rio 2016 - 49erFX Olympic Nomination Appeal dismissed by CAS

by Richard Gladwell, Sail-World.com on 27 Jun 2016 To the surprise of no-one, Australian Sailing have been able to get their 'medal capable' or 'medal potential' Olympic Selection policy upheld by the Court of Arbitration for Sport.

Earlier, the Australian national sailing body had elected not to select a crew in the women's 49erFX skiff, triggering the Appeal from the top-ranked crew of Tessa LLoyd and Caitlin Elks.

Three crews were in the viewfinder for the spot which was earned in the first round of Olympic Qualification in Santander, Spain in September 2014.

Yachting Australia, re-badged as Australian Sailing determined that despite years of campaigning on the world and international circuits that none of the three crews met the national body's criteria for selection and shut up shop for the Olympic Sailing Regatta, which gets underway in early August.

The seven-page complex selection policy broadly requires that sailors finish in the top six of the 2015 or 2016 World Championships, a top three in the Europeans or top two in a couple of World Cup events.

None of the three crews met this criteria.

The Decision by CAS follows a similar Decision by New Zealand's Sports Disputes Tribunal over the non-selection of two female sailors in similar circumstances.

Under the Australian Policy, to be eligible for selection as 'medal potential' for 2016 or 2020 Olympics there was a broad requirement for a crew to have finished in the top ten nations at the same regattas as the 'medal capable'criteria. The top Australian crew finished 12th nation in 2015 and 11th nation in 2016 49erFX Worlds.

Unfortunately the requirement of the International Olympic Committee for gender equality, in terms of medals and participation, in the 2020 Olympics was not factored into the policy. Australia will not be represented in three of the ten 2016 Olympic classes - two of those three being women's events.

The events for the 2020 Olympics for Tokyo will be selected in November 2016, with the IOC making it clear that it will have oversight of the events proposed. However, it is very difficult to see the photogenic women's skiff being dropped as an Olympic event in Tokyo. Equally it is difficult to see womens crews making the sacrifice of a four year commitment to the Olympic commitment, when the selection bar is set so high.

Yachting New Zealand also declined to nominate crews in three events for which the Kiwis had qualified in Santander. The New Zealand policy was less draconian than that on the other side of the Tasman, but again two women sailors were not nominated on the basis of being 'medal capable' or 'medal potential'.

Additionally of the ten places available for Oceania, of which Australia and New Zealand are a part, only two were taken up by competitors from the Pacific Islands and New Caledonia.

The 13 event places in the 2016 Olympics which could have been taken up by crews from the SW Pacific have been reallocated to crews from Europe.

Australia will be represented in the Nacra 17, Finn, Laser, Laser Radial, 49er, 470 Men, 470 Women and will not have crews in either the Mens or Womens Windsurfer and unbelievably for the country which is seen as synonymous with skiff sailing, the 49er FX.

New Zealand will not be represented in the Womens Singlehander (Laser Radial) or the Windsurfer class - an event which has earned the Kiwis six medals for seven Olympics.

The Spanish sailing federation (Real Federación Española de Vela) has announced that 2012 Olympic representative Alicia Cebrian will take the Laser Radial position offered by World Sailing, after RFEV conducted a selection trial at Kiel Week.

Cebrian has taken the position earned in 2014 by New Zealand sailor, Sara Winther, but rejected by Yachting New Zealand.

Cebrian finished 23rd in the 2015 World Championships in the Laser Radial, and 48th in the 2014 Worlds. She did not compete in the 2016 Worlds in Mexico. Winther finished 11th in the 2014 Worlds, 22nd in 2015 and 11th again in 2016.

The two Womens RS:X places rejected by Australian and New Zealand have been offered to Turkey and Sweden, with Turkey confirming they will take the spot offered by World Sailing.

Spain has picked up two places in the reallocation by World Sailing and will now sail with a nine-strong team. Australia and New Zealand will have just seven entries each in Rio.

By not being selected, and sitting out the current Olympic cycle all non-selected crews can pursue options to change nationality to a country in their region which has less draconian selection policies and run self-funded or commercially funded campaigns - with the near certainty of Olympic selection from those countries.

The Australian Sailing announcement of their win in the Court of Arbitration for Sport is as follows. (Reasons for the decision are yet to be released by CAS):

On 27 June 2016 the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) dismissed the appeal by Tess Lloyd and Caitlin Elks against the decision by the Australian Sailing Appeals Tribunal.

The Tribunal’s decision was to uphold the non-nomination of a crew in the 49er FX class to the Australian Olympic Committee (AOC) based on the performance standards set by Australian Sailing. With the matter now concluded, Matt Carroll, Australian Sailing CEO, said 'we have followed the process as set down in the Olympic Team By-Law, which provides all athletes with the ability to appeal a selection decision. We acknowledge the commitment and dedication of all those athletes who were vying for Olympic nomination across all classes but Australian Sailing believes Olympic Games nomination requires the highest standard of performance.'

Australian Sailing thanks the athletes and their legal advisors, as well as its own legal representatives and officials, for the spirit in which the appeals were conducted.

The decision by CAS concludes the appeals process.