Hi JW,

I agree with your frustration over this, but unfortunately, I do believe that even if both parties were in the room, there's an excellent chance that the Ringling Bros would still be involved. There's simply too much at stake, and neither one of the competitors involved (or their coaches, etc.) would likely have been willing to back off without exhausting all possible roads to China. Obviously, we'll never know...

I do agree with you that a potential "flaw" in the system is that until the decision is made, the other sailors aren't a party, and won't be invited to the protest. I don't know of a good way to fix that, it would be tough for the jury to identify (and deal with) all potential parties who may file for redress as soon as the results of the first hearing are posted.

Mike