Hope is alive for Usain Bolt to regain his 9th gold medal
Usain Bolt’s teammate Nesta Carter, the sixth fastest 100m runner of all time, has filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Friday after the International Olympic Committee had ruled to strip he and his Jamaican running mates of their gold medal from the 2008 Beijing Olympics in the 4x100m relay due to Carter’s doping.
Carter, age 31, tested positive for the banned stimulant mathulhexaneamine last year as part of the IOC’s initiative to greatly curb doping in the Games, particularly among Russian athletes. Nesta Carter’s urine sample was reanalyzed as part of this effort last summer and the IOC ruled last month to strip the Jamaican team of Bolt, Carter, Asafa Powell, and Michael Frater’s gold medal from Beijing. After the hearing, the Olympic titles were returned to the IOC by the four sprinters.
The Jamaican Olympic Association had said they would appeal at that time and it comes as no surprise that Carter has begun his own legal process with CAS.
“We have to decide what the best legal process is,” Jamaican Olympic Association chief Mike Fennell said at the time of the IOC decision in January. “It is a team and we are interested in ensuring they are properly protected and given a fair chance of clearing their names.”
A statement released on Friday from the CAS said that “Nesta Carter seeks to set aside the challenged decision in order for the Jamaican team to be reinstated as gold medallists.”
About the process, the statement said “A Cas arbitration procedure is in progress. First, the parties will exchange written submissions and a panel of three arbitrators will be constituted. The panel will then issue directions with respect to the holding of a hearing. Following the hearing, the panel will deliberate and at a later date, it will issue a decision in the form of an arbitral award.”
The IOC decision, viewed as unfair by some to Carter’s teammates, has especially hurt the 30-year-old phenomenon Bolt, who had previously held nine record golds in track-and-field and has retained a squeaky clean image in a sport that has seen many doping cases. The arbitration process gives the internationally known runner hope to get back his record intact.
“It’s rough that I have to give back one of my medals and I already gave it back because it was of course required by the IOC”, Bolt said to Reuters in January. “I’m not happy about it but it’s just one of those things that happen in life. I can’t allow that to deter me from my focus this season, so I am focused, but I am not pleased.”
Earlier this week Usain Bolt was on hand at the Laureus World Sports Awards in Monaco to accept the Laureus Sportsman of the Year award for the fourth time, a record he shares with only Roger Federer and Serena Williams.
While at the awards, he discussed retirement with Reuters while on the red carpet.
“I’ve just done everything I wanted to do in the sport,” Bolt told Reuters.
“I asked (former U.S. sprinter) Michael Johnson the same question, ‘why did you retire when you were on top?’. He said the same — he had done everything he had wanted to do in athletics so there was no reason to stay in the sport. Now I understand what he means.
Next: Who will become the next Usain Bolt?
Bolt is expected to retire after the 2017 World Athletics Championships in August. Hopefully he’ll go out on a high note, with his 9-time Olympic gold record reinstated.