Bobsleigh

Australia's women two-man bobsleigh team of Astrid Loch-Wilkinson and Cecilia McIntosh were celebrating Tuesday after they successfully appealed against their exclusion from the Winter Olympics.

The Australian Olympic Committee lodged their case after the International Bobsleigh Federation (FIBT) decided not to allocate Australia a continental quota place.

The AOC argued the FIBT erred in its decision and took their case to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), which ruled in their favour.

"We won. The outcome means that Oceania will be represented in the Women's Two-Man Bobsleigh," said Fiona De Jong, the AOC's director of sport.

"We are bloody stoked, obviously. I had the opportunity to speak to the girls and they squealed for about two minutes and did a happy dance."

Ireland's two-man team could have been omitted as a consequence of Australia getting the green light, but CAS recommended to the International Olympic Committee that a 21st sled be included into the existing field.

Although the decision is yet to be ratified by the IOC, the ruling ensures that the 20th sled qualified, that of Irish pair Aoife Hoey and Claire Bergin, will remain, as suggested by the AOC's representatives at the CAS hearing.

"To be honest, it's a CAS situation and we clearly support any decision taken by CAS," said IOC spokesman Mark Adams.

Driver Loch-Wilkinson and brakeman McIntosh had been waiting nervously at a Vancouver hotel for days, and particularly the 20 hours between the end of the five-hour CAS hearing and the notification of the panel's recommendation.

"Our first argument was always that a 21st sled was the preferred remedy," De Jong said.

"The Irish girls had also trained hard for this. It's a good all-round result. It's a difficult position, it really was. I empathised with both sets of athletes."

Loch-Wilkinson competed at the 2006 Turin Olympics, finishing 14th, while McIntosh, a former Commonwealth Games silver medallist in javelin, is at her first Olympics.

The first heats of the women's bobsleigh are on Tuesday, February 23.

Tuesday's CAS decision means that for the first time, an Australian Olympic team will have a 50-50 gender split.

The Australian team here will comprise 40 athletes - 20 men and 20 women. The closest an Australian Olympic team, (summer or winter) had come to gender equality before was the Turin 2006 Winter Olympics with 22 men and 18 women.