2024-01-07 15:29:05
Four years later, Clémence Calvin returned to competition. Authorized to issue a bib since December 17, 2023, the cross-country skier, European vice-champion in the marathon in 2018, completed the Prom’Classic in Nice in 32 minutes and 53 seconds (personal best in 31 minutes 20 in 2018) and took fourth place in this race won by Sarah Madeleine.
Calvin, 33, had not lined up for a race since the Paris marathon in April 2019. At the time, she had broken the French record by completing the 42.195 km in 2h23min 41, a performance which was not ultimately never been approved since the athlete was then suspended.
An incredible affair
The Clémence Calvin affair began a few days before the marathon when the athlete was provisionally suspended by the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) for evading an unannounced test in Morocco where she was training with his companion and coach Samir Dahmani. The affair took an incredible turn when Calvin, denying the accusations altogether, explained that one of the agents commissioned by the AFLD to control her had not presented himself as such and had attacked her in the street, his child even falling from his arms during the altercation.
Initially, the Council of State lifted the provisional suspension two days before the Paris marathon, allowing Clémence Calvin to run. But she was again provisionally suspended a few weeks later before receiving a definitive four-year suspension at the end of 2019. The athlete had also spent 48 hours in police custody last August as part of an investigation opened by the public health center of Marseille in March 2019 for “violations of the legislation on doping products”.
At 33, she now has until April 30 to try to achieve the Olympic minimums in the marathon (2h26:50). Four French women already meet the qualification criteria but the French team will only be able to field three at the Games.
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