Taiwanese athlete loses appeal against IOC election ban

A Taiwanese Olympic gold medallist has lost his appeal against a ruling which barred him from taking part in an election for the International Olympic Committee (IOC) athletes' commission last year.

Chu Mu-yen, gold medallist in taekwondo at the 2004 Athens Games, was ruled by the IOC to have campaigned inappropriately and used methods which were against the rules.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) said in a statement on Friday that it found Chu was guilty of "several violations" in the run-up to the August election last year.

These included "campaigning in an unauthorised area and distributing name cards and showing various documents via a tablet computer, despite having received a written warning from the IOC on July 26," CAS said.

"The CAS panel considered that the violations....influenced the election process for the athletes' commission and gave him an advantage over the other candidates who had complied with the rules.

"Under these conditions, the arbitrators found that the withdrawal of the nomination for election was the only appropriate sanction among those provided for in the IOC rules."

It added: "The CAS panel concluded that the behaviour of Chu Mu-yen was due more to excessive zeal than to a desire to cheat; his reputation and integrity as a sportsman should not be affected by this decision."

Photograph: Nicky Loh/Reuters