Decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport

The Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne, which on 15 July 2024 lifted the provisional suspension of Yoana Georgieva’s rights and acquitted her of the charge of breaching anti-doping whereabouts rules, has issued a new ruling more than two years after the previous one. The 2024 ruling was appealed to a three-member CAS panel by WADA, with the ICF joining them in their case against Georgieva. Two and a half years after the alleged breach, a hearing was held before CAS in Lausanne. The tribunal has the right to review the case entirely from scratch and may disregard the findings of the first instance. The new allegations put forward by WADA and the ICF necessitated the gathering of additional evidence, which, given the time that had elapsed between the alleged breach and the hearing before CAS, proved difficult. According to the new decision of the Court of Arbitration for Sport in Lausanne dated 3 August 2026, Yoana Georgieva has been imposed a sanction of ‘suspension from competition’ for a period of six years, with effect from the date on which this decision comes into force.

The sanction relates to the same allegation that Yoana Georgieva failed a doping test on 15 December 2023. Between December 2023 and June 2024, she was tested eight times, with all samples returning negative results. Following the CAS hearing in 2024, Yoana Georgieva has been tested for doping more than 20 times, and all samples have returned negative results.