SportsLawTalk - Tell us about your background and how you got involved and developed your interest in International Sports Law?

Daniel Gandert - Growing up, I had always been a big fan of the Olympics and the Olympic movement. When I was young and at the stage of life when a lot of people aspire to be president, I wanted to be the president of the IOC.   I was a big fan of (Juan Antonio) Samaranch and the whole Olympic movement. I went to law school and learned about the Court of Arbitration for Sport which is a tribunal that serves the function of a Supreme Court of the sports world. It's like a fantasy legal world, where parties can appeal other court decisions. I found following it to be very fascinating.  Additionally, I have found that when playing sports, I am always the person most concerned with technicalities related to the rules, so I find the field of sports law to be a great fit.

SLT- When you were in high school did you look at colleges that would fulfill your sports law goals?

DG- I didn't, I ended up going to Georgetown University, and I do not think that there were any sports law programs for undergraduates at the time. Later, while studying at Northwestern University School of Law, I learned about the Court of Arbitration of Sport. At Northwestern, I took a Sports Law course that was really a survey class.   At the beginning of the year the professor asked what people were interested in and I told him Olympic Sports and the Olympic movement. The professor ended having me teach that class because I was more familiar than him with that area of sports law.

I also took a course called International Institutions and Global Governance.  I ended up writing a paper on the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). I submitted this paper as my writing sample when applying for a legal internship at USA Track and Field  the following summer. The Legal Director at the time was Jill Pilgrim and I really liked working with her and with everyone else at USA Track and Field.

SLT- Can you tell us a little more about WADA?

DG- WADA is an independent agency which works to coordinate the fight against doping in international sports. Matters undertaken by WADA include creating the World Anti-Doping Code, by which everyone in the Olympic world is required to abide.  For Example, FIFA (soccer’s international federation), the international federation for volleyball, ITF tennis, etc., are required to implement the same rules and penalties for doping offences, as well as the same list of banned substances and methods. WADA goes after athletes that might be involved in doping.  For example, Dick Pound, the former head of WADA was very critical of Lance Armstrong, thinking he was involved in doping.  The most recent co-authored article that I will have published is a description of how an agency like WADA that can act unilaterally is needed for US professional sports.

SLT - That brings us to the next question I was going to ask. Do you ever foresee a day when the Major League Baseball or the NFL becomes affiliated with WADA?

DG - Well, I think the big thing is that the current set-up is done by collective bargaining. Under the CBAs, neither side has incentive for a stricter anti-doping program. In my opinion, the doping policies in the U.S. professional leagues are a joke. On the player’s side, they don't want stricter testing. If you are on the owners' side, you don't want stricter testing because you want your players to perform better and sell more tickets. In the professional leagues, all of the rules seem to be coming out too late after a new substance has been introduced. It is not an easy thing to have stricter anti-doping rules come out. I have gone to International conferences to present on this topic and people have told me they find the United States confusing because we have the best technology for detecting doping and one of the best anti-doping agencies - USADA, but they didn't understand why we have some of the highest doping incidences in the world. Well, this is because we don't require the professional leagues to be under the same systems as the rest of the world.

Tomorrow - Part Two of the SLT interview with Daniel J. Gandert