SCM Staff Writer I October 01, 2025
LAUSANNE, Switzerland — The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has reinstated four-year doping bans for four prominent Georgian athletes—two wrestlers and two weightlifters—in a decision that casts serious doubt on a local court’s finding of sabotage.
The ruling, announced Wednesday, overturns a prior decision by the Georgian Anti-Doping Agency (GADA) that had annulled the athletes’ suspensions, accepting their claim that they were victims of a “spiking offense.”
CAS, however, found insufficient evidence to support the athletes’ defense, concluding that the Anti-Doping Rule Violations (ADRVs) were not unintentional.
The athletes involved are wrestlers Dato Piruzashvili and Nika Kentchadze, and weightlifters Gurami Giorbelidze and Revaz Davitadze.
All four tested positive for ostarine, a prohibited substance classified as an anabolic agent, during out-of-competition controls conducted between July and September 2023.
GADA initially imposed a standard four-year period of ineligibility.
The athletes later challenged their suspensions, citing a June 2024 judgment from the Tbilisi City Court. That court had ruled that a person inflicted bodily harm on the four, adding the prohibited substance to their drinking water while they were at a sports base in Bakuriani, Georgia. Based on this, GADA’s Disciplinary Committee subsequently found the athletes bore “no fault or negligence” and annulled their bans in August and September 2024.
CAS Rejects Sabotage Theory
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and the International Weightlifting Federation (IWF) filed separate appeals to CAS, requesting that the four-year bans be reinstated due to what they termed “serious doubts” surrounding the alleged spiking incident.
In the decisions issued Wednesday, CAS upheld all four appeals. The sanctions will take effect from September 30, 2025, with credit given for any provisional suspensions already served.
In the reasoned decision for the wrestling cases, a sole arbitrator scrutinized the alleged sabotage.
The CAS award found that the Tbilisi City Court Judgment lacked the necessary factual investigation to support the spiking theory. Crucially, the decision stated that the defense was contradicted by scientific evidence: it is “scientifically proven that ostarine is not soluble in water,” which directly undermines the alleged method of administration through drinking water.
Based on this, the arbitrator concluded that the wrestlers were unable to establish their ADRVs were not intentional. The grounds for the weightlifting cases are yet to be notified.
This decision serves as a powerful reminder of the strict liability principle in anti-doping, where athletes bear the ultimate responsibility for any prohibited substance found in their bodies.
The ruling sends a strong message to both international and national federations regarding the rigorous standards required to prove an athlete’s lack of intent in doping cases.
