[Zoom In on transnational sports law] Blake Leeper v. IAAF

The Asser International Sports Law Centre headed by Dr Antoine Duval, in collaboration with Dr Marjolaine Viret, is launching a new series of zoom webinars on transnational sports law: Zoom In. The first discussion (4 December at ) will zoom in on the recent arbitral award delivered by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) in the Blake Leeper v. International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF) case. In this decision, reminiscent of the famous Pistorius award rendered a decade ago, the CAS panel ruled on the validity of an IAAF rule that places the burden on a disabled athlete to prove that a mechanical aid used to compete in IAAF-sanctioned competitions does not give them an overall competitive advantage. While siding with the athlete, Blake Leeper, on the burden of proof, the CAS panel did conclude that Leeper’s prosthesis provided him an undue advantage over other athletes and hence that the IAAF could bar him from competing in its events.