Vitalina Simonova* ‘Doping Ban Reduced from 4 to 2 Years By CAS’, Says Lawyer

As the International Olympic Committee and the World Anti-Doping Agency makes their plans to remove the role of international federations in the anti-doping process, a cautionary talke arrives from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and its tendency to be lenient when cheating rears its head.

Lawyer Artem Patsev has posted news on his Facebook page, the Sports Express website reports, indicating that Russian Vitalina Simonova*, banned for four years by FINA after she tested positive for doping last year, has had her suspension reduced to two years by CAS.

Testostrone was the stuff that showed up in undue proportions in Simonova’s test. Now Patsev claims that CAS has sent him a “Consent Award” that includes a halving of her penalty and a reinstatement of all her results.

Simonova’s ban began on July 29 2015, on the cusp of a home world championships in Kazan, though it was much later when the case was revealed. It was early this year when Simonov’s name failed to appear on a Russian swim federation list of those eligible for participation at Olympic trials. It was July, a full years after the Kazan world titles and the case had been known by the powers than be, when the world heard that Simonova had been banned for four years.

Simonova’s excuse: she bought a food supplement and didn’t realise it contained banned substances. The line is rather a tired one in the realm of doping.

Neither CAS nor FINA have confirmed the news as things stand.

If confirmed, the case will join the long line of inconsistent judgements that set better and lesser known athletes, those with and without access to lawyers, apart in a crumbling anti-doping system. Here is an example of that among the most recent FINA case files:

On July 27, 2016, the diver Bogomil Koynashki (BUL) was tested positive to the prohibited substance Carboxy-THC (Class S.8 Cannabinoids) following an in-competition doping control test conducted on the occasion of the National Diving Championships.

The Bulgarian Swimming Federation imposed a sanction of four (4) years’ ineligibility on the athlete starting on October 20, 2016.

Cannabis: four years Testosterone – and no evidence to confirm whether the swimmer did or did not act deliberately: 2 years.

Of late, Russia has had more bad news on the doping front: Vitaly Melnikov & Eight-Year Doping Ban Highlight How & Why The System Is Broken

CAS is cited in IOC and WADA plans as being a fundamental part in a new world of battle against doping: WADA would oversee all testing and results management, CAS would hand down judgments. Leniency, however, was not supposed to be part of the mix in a new zero-tolerant world, critics are sure to note.

Meanwhile, the lawyer reporting a reduction in Simonova’s ban and apparently beating CAS and FINA with their news, leaves neutrality well behind him when he states:

“Thus, Vitalina will become a full participant in … competition already by June 28, 2017. Tremble, competition!”

Comment: Tremble system, he might have written. Against the backdrop of Rio 2016 and what came to pass with Yuliya Efimova*, Lilly King, Mack Horton and others, swimming will be no snctuary for those towing a doping record with them.

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