Fenlator-Victorian loses two-woman bobsleigh appeal
Published:Monday | February 7, 2022 | 11:21 AMDaniel Wheeler/Staff Reporter
Olympian Jazmine Fenlator-Victorian has lost her appeal to compete in the two-woman bobsled event at the 2022 Winter Games in Beijing.
The ruling was handed down today by the Court of Arbitration for Sport, rejecting Fenlator-Victorian's request to: "1) Recalculate the point rankings for the Beijing 2022 Quota Allocation 2-woman bobsleigh based on races that actually occurred and without retroactively double-counting any races, 2) Grant the final 2-woman quota spot to the Jamaican National Organising Committee (NOC) instead of the French NOC and 3) Order the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (IBSF) and the International Olympic Committee to add an additional quota spot to the French NOC to permit greater inclusion of female athletes in the Beijing Winter Games.
Fenlator-Victorian, who filed the appeal on Saturday, claimed that results were counted for a two-day event on December 4 and 5 2021, though no races on the first day of the event took place. The IBSF, it is claimed in the appeal, effectively, doubled the points on December 5, allowing the French team to pip the Jamaicans to the final qualification spot.
Additionally, Fentalator said that there was a bias towards European bobsleigh programmes, having the advantage of competing on the European circuit as compared to other programmes that do not have adequate resources.
The hearing took place yesterday evening Beijing time via a three-person panel over video conference. The Gleaner understands that Olympic appeals have to be decided within 24 hours.
With the appeal lost, Fenlator-Victorian will only compete in the Women's monobob event which starts on February 12 at 8:30 pm Jamaica time. Fenlator-Victorian is competing in her third and final Winter Olympics.