Suspended nine months for doping, French sprinter Mouhamadou Fall will not see the Olympic Games – Libération

2024-04-29 19:01:02

The 32-year-old athlete was notified this Monday, April 29, of his suspension for nine months by the sanctions committee of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) after testing positive for a banned stimulant. His participation in the Paris Games soared.

He will not see the finish line at the Stade de France during the next Olympic Games in Paris. French sprinter Mouhamadou Fall was notified this Monday April 29 of his suspension for nine months by the sanctions committee of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) after testing positive for a banned stimulant. Tested positive in July 2023 for heptaminol – a stimulant banned in competition – the 32-year-old athlete, until recently one of the executives of the French 4x100m relay and who was aiming for participation in the Olympics, had pleaded accidental contamination via food supplements.

He is suspended for nine months “from today,” said his lawyer, Christophe Ayela, adding that he was studying appeals. He believes that this is “an extremely serious and unfair decision”. “Everyone agrees that he has never doped and that he is the victim of contamination via food supplements,” explains the lawyer. In the decision of the sanctions commission, “he is criticized for not having been careful enough in the choice of food supplements,” explains Christophe Ayela.

Sixth in the world championships in Budapest with the 4×100 meters relay in 2023, Mouhamadou Fall pleaded at the beginning of April to accidental contamination via food supplements which without his knowledge contained octodrine, of which heptaminol is a metabolite. Without contesting the thesis of contamination, the representative of the AFLD college, Antoine Marcelaud, then requested a 15-month suspension instead of the two years incurred.

Still threatened with another suspension

According to the World Anti-Doping Agency, heptaminol like octodrine are substances which belong to the class of stimulants prohibited in competition but which can be found in many medications or supplements.

Mouhamadou Fall, who trains in El Paso (Texas), sees his participation in the Olympic Games disappear with this suspension. Quadruple French champion over 100 meters (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), he could however appeal to the Council of State, specifies Christophe Ayela.

When his positive test was made public in September, the athlete had already been the subject of another procedure with the AFLD, which accused him of three breaches of his anti-doping localization obligations in 2022. He was acquitted in July 2023 in this first case but the AFLD has filed an appeal before the Council of State which has not yet been decided.