Mouhamadou Fall will not go to the Olympic Games: after his positive test for a banned stimulant in July 2023, the French sprinter was notified on Monday April 29 of his suspension for nine months by the sanctions commission of the French Wrestling Agency against doping (AFLD). Testing positive during the French championships for heptaminol, a stimulant banned in competition, the 32-year-old athlete who was aiming for the Olympic Games this summer in Paris had pleaded accidental contamination by food supplements.
“It’s an extremely serious and unfair decision,” reacted his lawyer, M? Christophe Ayela, specifying that the rider was suspended “from today [April 29]” by the AFLD sanctions commission. , in front of which Mouhamadou Fall passed on April 10.
“Everyone agrees that he has never doped and that he is the victim of contamination via food supplements,” said M? Ayela. “This explains this minimum suspension, but it is already too much for a bona fide athlete. »
The contamination thesis
Sixth in the world championships in Budapest with the 4 × 100 meters relay in 2023, Mouhamadou Fall pleaded at the beginning of April for accidental contamination by food supplements which contained – without his knowing it, he said, octodrine, of which heptaminol is a metabolite. According to the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), 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.
Without contesting the thesis of contamination, the representative of the AFLD college, Antoine Marcelaud, requested a fifteen-month suspension instead of the two years incurred. In the decision rendered Monday, explained M? Ayela, “[the athlete] is criticized for not having been careful enough in the choice of food supplements.”
With this suspension, the four-time French 100-meter champion, who trains in El Paso (Texas) under the leadership of former French high jumper Mickaël Hanany, sees his participation in the Olympic Games this summer in Paris disappear. . He could, however, appeal to the Council of State, argued M? Ayela.
