Curling-CAS dismisses Romei's appeal against exclusion from Italy team

CORTINA D'AMPEZZO, Italy, Feb 8 : The highest court in global sport on Sunday dismissed an appeal by Italian curler Angela Romei bidding to overturn her exclusion from the women's team for the Milano Cortina Winter Olympics over allegations of favouritism.

Romei had asked the Court of Arbitration for Sport to overturn the Italian Ice Sports Federation's decision to replace her in the team in favour of the national team technical director's daughter.

Rebecca Mariani, the 19-year-old daughter of Marco Mariani, was among the five curlers named in the Italy squad for the Games, with the women's tournament being hosted in Cortina d'Ampezzo and beginning next week.

In a statement on Sunday, CAS said a hearing took place on Saturday in which the arbitrator thought it unlikely that the head coach would select an athlete "simply to help a member of the federation to include family into the Olympic roster.

"They found it equally unlikely that he would endorse false or fabricated statements to justify such a decision," the statement added.

Romei had also filed an appeal against the sport's governing body World Curling (WCF), which had told her that the selection of the Italian team was a matter for the Italian federation.

"The sole arbitrator found that WCF does not hold the decision-making authority to grant Ms Romei's request and confirmed that it is not the task of international federations to revisit the selection process at national level," CAS added.

The Italian federation has defended the inclusion of Mariani in the team, telling Reuters that it was a "technical" decision.