Arbitration panel picked for Landis appeal

After American cyclist Floyd Landis filed his appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), seeking to overturn his two-year suspension on doping charges, his defense team selected Swedish arbitrator Jan Paulsson for the panel which will evaluate his appeal. Landis's team and his opposition were permitted to each pick one arbitrator from CAS's list. CAS selected the final member of the panel.

While Landis picked Paulsson, who previously chaired a CAS panel that acquitted rider Iñigo Landaluze following a procedural error during Landaluze's positive doping test according to Eurosport, USADA selected New York lawyer David Rivkin and CAS itself picked New Zealand-based lawyer David Williams to head the panel.

"The parties will have until around the end of January to submit their statements, so it is very unlikely that the hearing can proceed before March," CAS General Secretary Mathieu Reeb said to Eurosport. A verdict could come as late as May, just two months before Landis would have celebrated the two-year anniversary of his 2006 Tour de France victory, had organizers not since awarded the win to runner-up Oscar Pereiro after the American Arbitration Association's (AAA) hearing outcome against Landis.

After losing his case before the AAA, Landis was stripped of his 2006 Tour de France win. He tested positive for testosterone following Stage 17. Lawyers will claim procedural errors were made during the testing of Landis' samples.

"We are optimistic the CAS will agree and stop the miscarriage of justice," said Landis's lawyer Maurice Suh regarding the upcoming appeal.