Some surprise has arisen from the fact that for the second time the Court of Arbitration for Sport has publicly held a hearing in the appeal filed by Sun Yang, a Chinese swimmer who had been accused to have refused or not submitted a sample for testing.
There were only two other occasions in which the hearing was held in public, the more well-known of them being the one achieved, after a fierce legal battle, by Claudia Pechstein, a German professional speed skater, and the other one concerning an Irish olympic swimmer.
It is suggested that what is surprisingly, is that a fierce battle was needed, first within CAS, then before the Swiss Federal Court, both unsuccessfully, and then before the European Court of Human Rights. Why should hearings not only of state courts, but of other bodies, the decision of which may severely affect the life of someone, be held in secret ?
Mauro Rubino-Sammartano