In a decision that will likely have ramifications for future sports competitions, a three-judge panel of the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) unanimously overturned a ruling by the International Association of Athletics Federations (IAAF), the world governing body for track and field, which would have prevented double-amputee South African sprinter Oscar Pistorius from competing in the Beijing Olympic games this summer.
The Am Law Daily reported on Pistorius’s plight in April, when a pro bono team led by Jeffrey Kessler, the co-chair of the global and sports litigations departments at Dewey & LeBoeuf, appeared before the CAS in Lausanne, Switzerland, to appeal the IAAF’s January 14 decision banning Pistorius from IAAF-sanctioned events like the Olympics.
