CYCLIST LOSES SWISS FEDERAL SUPREME COURT DOPING APPEAL

It has been reported that the Colombian cyclist, Miguel Ángel López, has lost his appeal from the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to the Swiss Federal Supreme Court (TFS) against the four-year anti-doping suspension imposed upon him regarding his use and possession of menotropin, a prohibited peptide hormone, immediately before the 2022 Giro d’Italia.

This means that he is suspended from competition until 24 July 2027.

The TFS also upheld the financial sanction imposed upon him under the UCI Anti-Doping Rules.

His case is somewhat unusual in that the finding of an anti-doping rule violation by him did not result from a conventional positive doping control, but much of the evidence against him came, instead, from information gathered by the Spanish authorities during Operation Ilex.

Thus, the TFS had to consider whether sports disciplinary bodies could legitimately rely upon evidence, which was gathered during a state criminal investigation.

The TFS accepted that antidoping organisations necessarily operate with far fewer investigative and coercive powers than police or judicial authorities and did not find that the use of this evidence was incompatible with the legal protections which the cyclist had invoked.

We act in doping cases in Switzerland before CAS and the TFS and further information is available from either Dr Lucien Valloni or Kim Gamboni by emailing them at valloni@valloni.ch and gamboni@valloni.ch respectively.