Andy has been writing about the governance of sport for over 15 years. Prior to working on the Sports Integrity Initiative, he was the editor of World Sports Law Report for eight years. He has also worked for the Press Association and has written for numerous trade magazines. He has also created, chaired and spoken at numerous conferences on the business of sport, and produced the Sports Law Show for iSportConnect TV.
All posts by Andy Brown
• Ice hockey player Cory Conacher has been sanctioned with a three month ban for failing to obtain a therapeutic use exemption (TUE) to use insulin for medical reasons, Anti-Doping Switzerland has announced. The SC Bern player’s ban expired today. • Trail runner Anna Infantile has been provisionally suspended after...
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) have allowed Belarusian sporting authorities to remove Krystsina Tsimanouskaya (Крысціна Ціманоўская) from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. The 200m runner was critical of a Belarus Athletics Federation (BFLA) Decision to include her and Elvira Herman on the...
Therapeutic treatment administered to an Italian volleyball player to treat post Covid-19 symptoms has been blamed for an anti-doping rule violation (ADRV) for multiple substances that resulted in a two year doping ban. Alberto Polo returned an adverse analytical finding (AAF – or ‘positive test’) for meldonium, hydrochlorothiazide, 4-amino-6-chloro-1,3-benzenedisulfonamide...
• Two Italian cyclists have been provisionally suspended after returning adverse analytical findings (AAFs – or ‘positive tests’) for prohibited substances. Vincenzo Pisani, winner of the Gavia and Mortirolo Gran Fondo, returned an AAF for recombinant erythropoietin (r-EPO) during an out of competition test on 25 June in Bracciano,...
On Wednesday, 20 athletes were pulled from the Tokyo 2020 Olympics because their national athletics federations failed to ensure that they underwent the minimum number of anti-doping tests required by World Athletics. Of course, it is vital that athletes competing at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics are sure that their...
First, a US athlete claimed that a dodgy burrito had terminated their Olympic hopes and now, a meal at a Jamaican restaurant in Las Vegas has apparently ended a Swiss athlete’s Olympic dream. It increasingly appears that growth promoters used by farmers are causing athletes to return adverse analytical...
• Athletics coach Alberto Salazar has been declared permanently ineligible from 26 July by the US Center for SafeSport, based on allegations of sexual and emotional misconduct. The details behind the Decision, which can be appealed, were not published. In September 2019 Salazar, formerly Head Coach at the Nike...
The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has been criticised for praising Javad Foroughi (جواد فروغی), a former member of Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC), for winning a Gold medal in the Air Pistol at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. Foroughi’s Wikipedia profile confirms that he served with the IRGC during...
• Race walker Lebogang Shange, who was named in South Africa’s squad for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics despite being provisionally suspended since 19 December 2019, has been sanctioned with a four year ban by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS). Shange’s four year ban runs from the date...
Kariem Hussein will miss the Tokyo 2020 Olympics, after a Gly-Coramin lozenge resulted in an adverse analytical finding (AAF – or ‘positive test’) for nikethamide, resulting in a nine month ban. ‘The result of a doping control at the Swiss Championships showed a substance that is not allowed for...
An Independent Regulator for English Football (IREF) is needed, outlines Tracy Crouch MP in a letter (PDF below) to Culture Secretary Oliver Dowden. The letter details the interim recommendations from the Fan Led Review of Football Governance, which was commissioned in April as a response to concerns that followed...
The ‘whereabouts’ system, which requires athletes to file their location for doping control purposes, needs reforming. This has been highlighted, yet again, by the case of Ecuadorian sprinter Alex Quiñonez, who faces losing his spot at the Tokyo 2020 Olympics due to an error made by his agent in...
The US Office of National Drug Control Policy (ONDCP) has withheld US$1.3 million of the $2.9 million earmarked by Congress to fund the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) during 2021. “Congress appropriated up to US$2.9 million for the fiscal year 2021 for the ONDCP to fulfil the annual US dues...
• The Russian weightlifting federation (ФTAP) has doubled a four year ban issued to Vadim Bikmukhametov (Бикмухаметова Вадима). Bikmukhametov was sanctioned with a four year ban last month, after a prohibited substance was found in his sample. ФTAP announced that he has also been charged with ‘falsification or attempted...
Maxim Agapitov, the President of the European Weightlifting Federation (EWF), has challenged the withdrawal of his accreditation for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics at the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s (CAS) Ad Hoc Division. ‘On 16 July 2021, the IOC officially informed Mr Agapitov that he did not meet the...
