Bobsleigh

SYDNEY, Australia - The Australian Olympic Committee has appealed to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to allow its two-women bobsled team to compete at the Vancouver Games.

Fiona de Jong, the Australian committee's director of sport, lodged the appeal in an attempt to gain a games berth for Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Cecilia McIntosh after the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation (FIBT) failed to award a place to any team from the Oceania region.

Australia was the top-ranked nation in Oceania and the AOC said the pair met the minimum qualification standards imposed by the FIBT.

Loch-Wilkinson and McIntosh are training at the Olympic venue in Whistler. Their event was not until Feb. 23.

The AOC accused the FIBT of not upholding its qualifying rules.

"The FIBT should have chosen 18 two-man teams and then reserved the last two places for teams from Oceania and Asia," de Jong said. "They have not followed their qualification system, approved by the IOC."

The AOC said the FIBT will argue that Australia was already represented by male athletes in the bobsled events in Vancouver.

"We will argue that the fact we are represented in the men's events does not disentitle the AOC to a continental quota place in the women's bob event," de Jong said.

The AOC asked for an urgent hearing before the CAS in Vancouver. The Australian committee has chosen 38 athletes for the Winter Games.