U.S. CODE

U.S. Code

§ 220523. Authority of national governing bodies

(a) Authority.— For the sport that it governs, a national governing body may—

(1) represent the United States in the appropriate international sports federation;

(2) establish national goals and encourage the attainment of those goals;

(3) serve as the coordinating body for amateur athletic activity in the United States;

(4) exercise jurisdiction over international amateur athletic activities and sanction international amateur athletic competition held in the United States and sanction the sponsorship of international amateur athletic competition held outside the United States;

(5) conduct amateur athletic competition, including national championships, and international amateur athletic competition in the United States, and establish procedures for determining eligibility standards for participation in competition, except for amateur athletic competition specified in section 220526 of this title;

(6) recommend to the corporation individuals and teams to represent the United States in the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, and the Pan-American Games; and

(7) designate individuals and teams to represent the United States in international amateur athletic competition (other than the Olympic Games, the Paralympic Games, and the Pan-American Games) and certify, in accordance with applicable international rules, the amateur eligibility of those individuals and teams.

(b) Replacement of National Governing Body Pursuant to Arbitration.— A national governing body may not exercise any authority under subsection (a) of this section for a particular sport after another amateur sports organization has been declared (in accordance with binding arbitration proceedings prescribed by the organic documents of the corporation) entitled to replace that national governing body as the member of the corporation for that sport.

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