Sailors Tess Lloyd and Caitlin Elks have lodged an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) after failing to gain nomination for Australia's Rio Olympics team.
Lloyd and Elks and fellow 49er FX crew Olivia Price and Eliza Solly were knocked back by an Australian Sailing appeals tribunal this week when they contested the decision not to nominate any crew in their class for the Games.
Lloyd and Elks have since decided to press on with a CAS appeal, their last chance to get to Rio and contest the new Olympic women's sailing class 49er FX.
Australian Sailing (AS) broke their silence on the matter on Wednesday, strongly defending their selection decision and saying the 49er FX - and RSX windsurfing - athletes had not met selection criteria by achieving a baseline performance and so were not nominated.
"Olympic selection requires the highest standards of our athletes," said AS in a statement.
"The nomination criteria set out by Australian Sailing has evolved over the last two Olympic periods.
"This criteria has delivered success for our sailing team at recent Olympic Games and this has resulted in our sport receiving greater funding and more opportunities to support sailors in our Olympic pathway."
The AS tribunal which heard the appeals was chaired by Olympic skiing medallist Zali Steggall and included Adam Casselden and Olympic sailor Tom King.
