California, USA – June 30 2023
The ISA Executive Committee (EC) has now received legal advice on the case of Erin Brooks having participated for Canada at ISA Events when in fact her citizenship for Canada had not been established.
Based on the advice received, the ISA EC has further considered the legal consequences of Ms. Brooks’ participation and the impact on her individual results and team ranking.
The EC has concluded the following:
• A retroactive disqualification of all the individual results of Ms. Brooks is not justified, since no analogous application of the relevant rules of the ISA Rulebook can be made in the present case: Ms. Brooks did not gain any undue advantage in any given competition.
• Since Team Canada has received team ranking points and similar due to the participation of Ms. Brooks for Canada, an application of the disqualification rules is justified, and the relevant points originally earned by Ms. Brooks for the Canada team shall therefore be cancelled.
Based on these conclusions, and to further clarify, Ms. Brooks will be allowed to retain any medals and rankings won as an individual in past ISA or PASA events, however anything she achieved to the benefit of Canada will be removed.
As a result, her individual places and medals will remain, however her team points will be removed. The ISA is in the process of reviewing the impact of this decision on the team results from events where Ms. Brooks competed and will publish the updated team standings on its website shortly.
Furthermore, and following additional consultations with legal counsel, the ISA EC decided that the place which Ms. Brooks qualified for the Pan Am Games in Santiago through the Surf City El Salvador ISA World Surfing Games by virtue of her representation of Canada, would be reallocated to the next highest ranked female surfer from the Americas. The same will be the case for the place she earned for Canada for the ANOC World Beach Games.
Under the circumstances and given this mistake was of no fault to the individual athlete, the ISA believes this is not only the legally proper and correct decision, but also a positive solution for all parties involved, while ensuring a fair and transparent outcome.
