CANADA have lost their place at the 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games following the disqualification of athlete Nicole Walker (26). The athlete has confirmed she will fight the decision with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The FEI announced on Tuesday that they have reallocated one of the three Olympic team quota slots from the Pan American Games to Argentina “following an adverse analytical finding in a member of the Canadian team, which finished fourth.”

Walker, who also finished fourth individually with Falco Van Spieveld, was provisionally suspended by the FEI on November 11th after testing positive for Benzoylecgonine, a metabolite of cocaine, which is a prohibited substance under the FEI’s Anti-Doping Rules for Human Athletes (ADRHA). The sample was taken on August 7th, the day of the team final in Lima. Walker said the positive test was based on the consumption of coca leaf tea, a legal drink that is widely available in Peru.

Walker requested a hearing before the Panam Sports Disciplinary Commission, which took place on December 4th.

The FEI statement said: “The Commission decided that Article 11.2.2* of the FEI ADRHA, which states “the athlete’s results will be subtracted from the team result, to be replaced with the results of the next applicable team member” applies in this case.

Decision

“In line with this decision, the athlete’s results from both the team and individual competitions at the Pan-American Games are disqualified, and her results in the team competitions on 6 and 7 August replaced by those of the fourth Canadian team member, Lisa Carlsen. The Commission ordered that Panam Sports recalculate the team results accordingly.”

In a statement on social media, Walker said that Panam Sports accepted that her positive test was based on the consumption of coca leaf tea and she is filing an appeal to CAS. “We are fighting for the Canadian Equestrian Team’s right to go to the Olympics and are filing an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport. Panam Sports accepted that my positive test was based on the consumption of coca leaf tea on August 7th. We have a strong case. Thank you for your continued support,” she said.

Equestrian Canada responded to the FEI statement, saying: “EC remains firmly committed to clean sport and to standing behind our athletes. We fully support Nicole’s decision to bring an appeal forward to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS).

The resulting recalculation means that Canada drops to seventh on a finishing score of 84.07 and loses its team quota place for the Olympic Games. The FEI has reallocated the qualifying slot to Argentina who originally finished fifth on a score of 62.19.