The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled on a case involving the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) and Russian athlete Sergey Bakulin, along with the Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) and the All Russia Athletics Federation (ARAF). The dispute centered on Bakulin's Athlete Biological Passport (ABP), which showed abnormalities indicative of blood doping between 2010 and 2012. The IAAF appealed a decision by RUSADA's disciplinary committee, which had imposed a three-year and two-month suspension on Bakulin but only disqualified some of his competitive results, sparing his performances at the 2011 World Championships and 2012 Olympics. The CAS panel, composed of Prof. Luigi Fumagalli, Mr. Romano Subiotto QC, and Mr. Mika Palmgren, addressed key legal principles, including the reliability of ABP evidence, the lex mitior principle (applying the most favorable rules), fairness, and proportionality in sanctions.
The panel found that Bakulin's ABP profile displayed clear signs of blood manipulation, with experts unanimously concluding that abnormalities in hemoglobin and reticulocyte levels were consistent with the use of prohibited substances like erythropoiesis-stimulating agents (ESA) or blood transfusions. These violations were deemed intentional and systematic, enhancing Bakulin's performance over an extended period. The panel rejected arguments that the ABP was unreliable or that natural factors like altitude training could explain the anomalies. It also dismissed Bakulin's procedural objections, including challenges to CAS jurisdiction and the participation of RUSADA and ARAF, which were under suspension by WADA and IAAF at the time.
On the merits, the panel ruled that RUSADA's selective disqualification of results was incorrect. Under the 2009 IAAF Anti-Doping Rules, which governed the violation, all results from the date of the first abnormal sample (February 2011) to the start of Bakulin's suspension (December 2012) should have been disqualified. The panel emphasized that the lex mitior principle did not permit mixing rules from different editions of the IAAF regulations to create a hybrid framework. It also rejected the application of a "fairness exception," noting that Bakulin's deliberate and repeated violations warranted strict penalties to preserve competitive integrity.
The CAS upheld the IAAF's appeal, disqualifying all of Bakulin's results from February 25, 2011, to December 24, 2012, including his 2011 World Championship gold medal. The decision reinforced the ABP's validity as a tool for detecting doping and underscored the importance of consistent and stringent enforcement of anti-doping rules. The panel's ruling highlighted the need for proportionality in sanctions while ensuring that intentional violations do not go unpunished. The case serves as a precedent for handling similar disputes involving indirect evidence of doping and the principles governing disciplinary measures in sports.