Athlete Advisory Council
Protecting an Athlete’s Right to Compete
One topic athlete repre-
sentatives get asked a lot of questions about is athlete rights, and perhaps no ath- lete right is more fundamen- tal than an athlete’s right to compete. Before I became involved with the Athlete Advisory Council (AAC), I was not aware that there were mechanisms in place to protect an athlete’s abil- ity to participate in various competitions. Among other things, Section 9.1 of the United States Olympic Com- mittee’s bylaws provides that no National Governing Body (NGB) “may deny or threaten to deny any ama- teur athlete the opportunity to participate in the Olym- pic Games, the Pan Ameri- can Games, the Paralympic Games, a World Champion- ship competition, or other such protected competition ...” Section 9.1 also provides that the USOC “shall, by all reasonable means, protect the opportunity of an ama- teur athlete to participate if selected (or to attempt to qualify for selection to par- ticipate) as an athlete repre- senting the United States in any of the aforesaid compe- titions.” To assist athletes who
need to assert their rights to compete in these “protected competitions,” the USOC’s bylaws set forth a process by which an affected athlete can seek to protect his or
By Mary Weeks AAC Representative
her opportunity to compete. This complaint process is sometimes referred to as a “Section 9” complaint. The USOC’s bylaws outline the requirements a Section 9 complaint must contain and how the USOC will seek to resolve the complaint. If an athlete is not satisfi ed with how the USOC has handled their Section 9 complaint, the athlete may submit it to fi nal and binding arbitra- tion. Section 9 of the USOC bylaws also contains a pro- vision that allows for expe- dited review of a Section 9 complaint in the event that an athlete needs a quick de- cision in order to participate in an impending competi- tion.
USA Shooting has similar
provisions in its bylaws. USA Shooting defi nes “protected competitions” very broadly in Article II.A of its bylaws to include not only interna- tional matches, but also the National Championships and tryout matches, such as the selection matches. Article XXII provides a griev- ance procedure that USAS athletes may follow if they believe their rights to com- pete have been adversely affected. For athletes, the “right to
compete” issue can arise when an athlete believes he or she should have been se- lected to a team and was not due to error, rule interpreta- tion, application of selection criteria, or any other reason.
September 2015 | USA Shooting News 13
In the event that an athlete is concerned about his or her ability to participate in important competitions, it is helpful to know that both USAS and the USOC have measures in place to ensure athletes’ rights to compete are protected. And as al- ways, your elected athlete representatives are also available to answer ques- tions or address concerns.
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