2023-12-13 16:30:00
The investigation against Ximena Restrepo and Marcelo Gajardo is far from over. Although the Ethics Committee of the Chilean Athletic Federation issued a first ruling regarding the athletics controversy in Santiago 2023, different sides keep the case still open. For now, Martina Weil’s mother received a letter of reprimand and must offer a public apology. For his part, the coach will not be able to join any delegation for one season. Of course, the defense of both requested an appeal to the organization and an appeal not to innovate to the National Sports Arbitration Committee. The latter has already been accepted.
Those determinations are confirmed to El Deportivo by lawyer Carlos Castro, who represents Restrepo and Gajardo in the process. The lawyer details the different situations that led him to justify the order not to innovate to the Arbitration Committee, pointing mainly to the fact that due process was not respected. He gives as an example that, in the case of the vice president of World Athletics, the background of the investigation was provided after the ruling.
This request not to innovate (paralyze the effects of the investigation and its appealed resolution) has already been accepted by the National Sports Arbitration Committee, who must now compile the background of the process to see if irregularities were committed. While that happens, the sentence received by Restrepo and Gajardo will have no effect.
“Our appeal establishes that due process has not been complied with here, mainly, since my clients were not given access to the investigation, charges were not made that they could answer, an evidentiary hearing was not held,” the defense lawyer tells La Tercera at the outset.
The jurist warns of alleged irregularities in the investigation against Ximena Restrepo, who was accused of breaking into the Santiago 2023 warm-up track and insulting the national coaches who decided to support and reinstate the sprinters Poulette Cardoch and Berdine Castillo, who minutes before had been removed from the women’s 4×400 relay by coach Gajardo’s decision.
“The most aberrant thing is that no defense evidence was received and that at least, with respect to Ximena Restrepo, the background of the investigation, part of it, was only delivered to me as a defense attorney after the ruling was handed down, thus which one can assume is a little strange,” he points out.
Carlos Castro assures that the Chilean Athletic Federation (FEDACHI) lacks the authority to sanction the former Colombian athlete. “In the case of Ximena Restrepo, the court is incompetent, because the Santiago 2023 corporation has an organic body in which it has institutional responsibility. It also has a court to judge the situations that occurred regarding the leaders during the Pan American Games,” he maintains.
That statement points to Restrepo’s roles within national and international athletics. The bronze medalist at the 1992 Barcelona Olympic Games currently holds three positions: she is vice president of World Athletics (formerly the International Athletics Federation), Sports Manager of the Santiago 2023 Corporation and director of the athletics branch of the Universidad Católica Sports Club. It is for this last function that FEDACHI seeks to sanction, but her defense says that this was not her role during the situations experienced on November 6 at the National Stadium.
“They, in response to this allegation, say that she is a leader of the Catholic University, but it is not in the exercise of that position that these events occur, because there is a principle called specialty and, evidently, she acts in her capacity as Sports manager of the corporation,” emphasizes the defender.
Other points he expresses have to do with determinations that, according to him, go against the Sports Law. “The ruling says that an appeal can be presented before an extraordinary assembly of the Federation, which is contrary to the Sports Law and its modifications, even more so when we are supposedly talking about a violation of Decree 22… It has no basis That’s because boards of directors cannot modify resolutions issued by courts in sports. “That is absolutely out of character,” he adds.
Of course, the problems are not only related to the decision not to innovate, since the defense also states that the appeal of the sentence was unfairly denied. On November 28, the Ethics Committee of the Chilean Athletic Federation determined that Restrepo should apologize publicly and receive a letter of reprimand, while Marcelo Gajardo would be disqualified for one year, without the possibility of joining national delegations.
“The Ethics Committee of the Federation, in a rather strange resolution, said that the deadline had expired on Friday the 9th of this month, a date that we are clear does not exist, because the last Friday was the 8th and a holiday. The federation’s own statutes indicate that the deadlines are counted in business days. Therefore, the appeal that was filed the day before yesterday (Monday, December 11) is absolutely within the deadline, because it was notified to both on November 28,” Castro explains.
This situation leaves in suspense what was determined by the Chilean Athletic Federation. The internal investigation that the National Sports Arbitration Committee must carry out can nullify the sanctions and even request a new process, with new guarantees, where they become the entity that sanctions. The defense of Restrepo and Gajardo are convinced that there is sufficient evidence to prove that there were irregularities in the process.
On November 4, 2023, Martina Weil, Stephanie Saavedra, Berdine Castillo and Poulette Cardoch were to participate in the women’s 4×400 relay in Santiago 2023. They were the four best brands of the year in the category and appeared as the starters for the continental competition.
The first three appeared on the track of the National Stadium and competed. However, Cardoch did not do so, but two days later he told his version. “The relay coach (Marcelo Gajardo), without warning anything, and just two hours before the race, decides to take me and Berdine Castillo out and put in the two reserves… I was not given any specific compelling reason. I was only told that ‘I saw the others better’, an excuse or argument that in an objective sport like athletics lacks any foundation,” he said on social networks.
The athlete Berdine Castillo in Santiago 2023. (Photo: Agencia UNO)
The Rengo athlete even went further and revealed that after finding out about the veto she went to the Federation authorities. They asked Gajardo to back down on his decision, but the coach did not accept and he was relieved of his position. That is where the most serious part of the accusation comes: “When Berdine and I were reinstated to the team, people from outside came to the team to pressure and insult the head of speed, the technical manager and other coaches who had shown solidarity with us” , he explained.
This situation was supported by his partner Berdine Castillo, who also used social networks to tell her version of the events. “People from outside the national team began to arrive on the track, especially relatives of other members of the relay, who shouted and insulted the federation’s technical team and other coaches who had shown solidarity with us. Personally, I was scolded in multiple ways, even reaching insults that are impossible not to link to racism, classism, elitism and other expressions of discrimination,” she explained.
It was precisely in that section that the former Olympic athlete, mother of Martina Weil, was mentioned. “Among the people who appeared on the track was the vice president of World Athletics, Mrs. Ximena Restrepo, who without considering the symbolic weight of her presence and her words, shouted and insulted technicians of the Chilean Federation, pointing loudly my name and questioning my presence on the team. She demanded and pressured at all times, without any right or power, that they remove me from the 4×400 relay. There are multiple witnesses to these events,” she denounced.
The seriousness of the accusations and the media stir they generated caused great havoc in Chilean sport. It was a blow to the spirit that had been brewed in the Games and which ended up starting the investigation questioned today.
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