Olympic court rejects Italian curler’s claim of nepotism for losing place to official’s daughter

MILAN (AP) - An Italian curling athlete who blamed nepotism for her non-selection for the Milan Cortina Olympics had her appeal rejected Sunday.

The Court of Arbitration for Sport said its judge rejected the argument of Angela Romei that there was a "conflict of interest" when the Italian curling federation last month picked Rebecca Mariani instead.

The 19-year-old Mariani is the daughter of the national federation's technical director, Marco Mariani, who competed when Italy last hosted the Winter Games, in 2006 at Turin.

CAS said in a statement that Romei cited in her appeal being "a more experienced and qualified athlete." Romei is a silver and bronze medalist on Italy teams at the European Championships.

However, the court said its judge "did not find it likely that the head coach of a national team would agree to include an athlete in the Olympic team that is inferior to another athlete, simply to help a member of the federation to include family into the Olympic roster."

The judge who heard the appeal Saturday was described as "not unsympathetic" to Romei's concerns, but "did not find sufficient evidence" that Mariani's selection was unreasonable.

Rebecca Mariani is the expected reserve in the Italy women's team skipped by Stefania Constantini, the gold medalist in mixed doubles at the 2022 Beijing Olympics.

The women's competition in Cortina d'Ampezzo starts Thursday.