Bobsleigh team gets green light

Winter Olympics:Ireland's women's bobsleigh team has been cleared to compete at the Winter Olympics, which gets underway in Vancouver on Friday. A late legal challenge from the Australian Olympic Committee, to the Court of Arbitration of Sport (CAS) had threatened to override Ireland's qualification on their claim that one Oceanic team was entitled to compete.

But after a lengthy deliberation, which had been preceded by the Olympic Council of Ireland (OCI) presenting a vehement counter-argument, it was decided tonight that both Ireland and Australia would be allowed compete – the only compromise that was seen as acceptable to both National Olympic Committees, even though that entails a derogation of the Olympic competition rules. The Australians, thus, become the 21st team to qualify.

The news comes as a major relief for of Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin, who have already been living in the Olympic Village since last Monday week, while the Australians, Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Cecilia McIntosh, have been staying elsewhere and training at the Whistler venue.

The problem arose when the Australian’s submitted a lengthy appeal to CAS contending that they should be given a position in the bobsleigh line-up of 20; this resulted from the Austrian team withdrawing, bumping Ireland up to 19th in the rankings, while Japan was offered the vacant 20th spot as the top team in Asia.

The Australians argued that their team should be entered under the wild-card provision, which makes one slot in the 20-team field available to Oceania and another for Asia, according to the rules of FIBT, the international bobsleigh federation.

OCI president Patrick Hickey had stated his great concern should Ireland be cast aside by CAS, telling the Olympic website, Rings: “It would be outrageous if those girls were stripped of their accreditation and sent back home to Ireland,” said Hickey.

“We’re already suffering from the football (case) of Thierry Henry scoring a goal with his hand and eliminating us from the World Cup finals. And if something like this happened it would be catastrophe altogether.”