Vinesh Phogat was in imperious form as she made her way to the women's 50kg final at the ongoing Paris Olympics 2024. But Lady Luck had other plans as Phogat narrowly missed the weight retirement by only 100 grams and she was disqualified from the final. Earlier, she had created history when she became the first Indian woman wrestler to qualify for an Olympic final.

Since then, Phogat has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sports (CAS) for permission to fight for gold. If it is granted, she has requested to be awarded a joint silver medal. The interim ruling by CAS is expected on Thursday.

The CAS was established in 1984 and is an international body for settling disputes related to sport through arbitration. The CAS headquarters are located in Switzerland and its courts are in New York, Sydney and Lausanne. Temporary courts are also established in current Olympic host cities.

The current CAS president is John Coates, who was appointed in 2011. A dispute can be submitted to the CAS only if an arbitration agreement between both parties specifies recourse to the CAS. Also, all Olympic games dispures can only be submitted to CAS, and all Olympic international federations have recognised the CAs jurisdiction in some disputes.

The CAS was originally conceived by IOC president Juan Antonia Samaranch, to deal with disputes during Olympics. It was created as part of the IOC in 1984. Tthrough agreement with the 2009 World Anti-Doping Code, all signatories, including Olympic international federations and national Olympic committees, have agreed to the jurisdiction o CAS for anti-doping rule violations.

Since 2016, an anti-doping division of CAS judges, who specialise in doping cases at the Olympic games, replaced the IOC disciplinary commission. Also as a Swiss arbitration organisation, decisions of the CAS can be appealed to the Federal Supreme Court of Switzerland.

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