On 31 May 2010, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) partially upheld appeals by the International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the Spanish Cycling Federation (RFEC) and the Spanish champion cyclist Alejandro Valverde.
This matter arose as a result of the Spanish criminal investigation concerning the international doping scandal known as Operación Puerto. On 29 August 2007, the UCI requested the RFEC to initiate disciplinary proceedings against Valverde on the basis of the evidence gathered within the Operación Puerto proceedings. On 7 September 2007, the RFEC denied the UCI's request and refused to open disciplinary proceedings. Both the UCI and WADA filed an appeal with CAS, requesting that Valverde be found guilty of an anti-doping rule violation and that a two year suspension be imposed.
While those proceedings were pending, the Italian authorities opened disciplinary proceedings against Valverde on the basis of evidence which they had in their possession. On 11 May 2009, the Italian National Olympic Committee ("CONI") Anti-Doping Tribunal (TNA) ruled that Valverde had committed "use, or attempted use of a prohibited substance or a prohibited method" and, as a consequence, the athlete was banned for two years from participating in events organised under the auspices of CONI or related national sports organisations in Italy. Valverde appealed the TNA decision to the CAS.
On 16 March 2010, the CAS confirmed the Italian two year ban issued by the TNA. And on 31 May 2010, the CAS upheld UCI's and WADA's appeals of the RFEC decision and banned Valverde from competition internationally for two years.
These matters brought together Spanish, Italian, Swiss, international, constitutional, criminal and sports law and were followed very closely by the cycling world. The decisions are published on the CAS website at http://www.tas-cas.org/news
Ogilvy Renault LLP represented WADA before the Court of Arbitration for Sport in both Valverde matters, with a team comprised of Stephen L. Drymer and Emmanuelle Demers.
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