No Evidence? No Problem. IAAF Refuses CAS Request. No Surprise.

It the executive summary of its decision on Caster Semenya released yesterday, Court of Arbitration for Sport noted a “paucity of evidence” related to the inclusion of the 1500m and mile under its restricted events.

Based on the lacking evidence base, CAS asked IAAF to reconsider inclusion of these two events.

One would think that a lack of evidence might give pause in policy making justified as evidence based. Ha! Think again.

Less than 24 hours after the CAS ruling was released IAAF has already rejected this recommendation by CAS, telling Andy Brown at the Sports Integrity Initiative that they “have enough evidence.”

What evidence is IAAF relying on?

Evidence that is so flawed that it should have been retracted from the scientific literature, as we have documented in peer-reviewed research. The treatment of the 1500m in this little episode is an apt metaphor for the overall role of evidence through the CAS Semenya proceedings.