(Reuters) - New Zealand mountain biker Sammie Maxwell was named in the country's Olympic team on Monday after a national sports tribunal found selectors had used incorrect medical evidence about her eating disorder in an initial decision to exclude her.
Maxwell, who has suffered from an eating disorder since she was 15, earned an Olympic quota place for the Games but was denied a spot by Cycling New Zealand's (CNZ) nominations panel.
The panel decided the 22-year-old had not "discharged the burden of demonstrating that she did not have any mental or physical impairment" that would prevent her from competing at the Games to the highest standard.
Maxwell appealed her exclusion last month to the New Zealand Sports Tribunal which found CNZ had used a doctor's report containing out-of-date information to assist in its decision to exclude her.
The tribunal also found CNZ's high performance director Ryan Hollows had influenced the decision by filing a "skewed" memorandum to the nominations panel which expressed concern about Maxwell's health.
The tribunal said it was concerned CNZ was taking a discriminatory attitude towards athletes with eating disorders.
"The decision .... is essentially saying that if an athlete has an eating disorder, they must have a mental and/or physical impairment," it said in a summary of the July 3-4 hearing.
"If this is the case, the result is that it can never select such an athlete. The tribunal finds that to be an uncomfortable precedent to set and is concerned that such an attitude could do more harm than good."
Maxwell said in a New Zealand Olympic Committee statement released on Monday that the past few weeks had been stressful and hectic.
"But I recognise that everyone involved in the process has a shared goal - to put my health and wellbeing first," she said.
"I didn't always agree with how everyone thought that should look, but I am grateful to have so many people around me caring for me and looking out for my health."
(Reporting by Ian Ransom in Melbourne; Editing by Peter Rutherford)
