Australian mountain biker Chris Jongewaard has won his appeal against Cycling Australia for omitting him from the 2008 Olympic squad. The Cycling Australia High Performance Management Committee (HPMC) has decided to allow the 29-year-old to represent his country at the August 8-24 Olympics in Beijing.

Jongewaard is Australia’s best performing male cross-country racer over the last two seasons, and his results at World Cup races met Australia’s criteria for earning its only spot for the Games. In June, however, the governing body acted to exclude Jongewaard based on “character grounds,” and awarded the spot to another rider, Daniel McConnell.

The “character grounds” Cycling Australia referred to was Jongewaard’s alleged drunk driving hit-and-run accident from 2007, which left fellow cyclist Matthew Rex in a coma for weeks. Jongewaard faces a criminal trial from that incident in December of this year.

Jongewaard, who rides on the professional Dolphin-Trek team, took his appeal to Cycling Australia’s Appeal’s Tribune, and on July 10 it ruled that Jongewaard’s appeal had been upheld.

The HPMC’s ruling is based on a clause in Cycling Australia's “Statement of Reasons” which says that a decision on the conduct of an athlete can only be made “in the absolute discretion of the President of the AOC or otherwise by the Chef de Mission or the Secretary-General exercising his powers pursuant to the Ethical Behaviour By-Law” or by Cycling Australia after “the AOC President has exercised his discretion.”

According to the tribunal, there was “sufficient doubt as to the authority of Cycling Australia to exclude Chris Jongewaard on character grounds,” and that “a successful defense in any subsequent hearing could not be assured.”