Paris 2024 Olympic Games: “Science has made progress but some still circumvent anti-doping controls”

Michel Audran avait mis au point la méthode de détection de l'EPO dans son labo de la fac de pharmacie de Montpellier. Midi Libre – MAX BERULLIER

Hématologue réputé, qui avait mis au point le test de dépistage de l’EPO, le Montpelliérain Michel Audran reste consultant pour de nombreux labos antidopage dans le suivi hématologique des athlètes.

Where is the fight against doping? Are there any new products that are difficult to detect ?

Not to my knowledge. But there are two things that complicate controls. Endogenous products, produced by the body itself, and microdoses used in particular on products such as testosterone and steroids. We had already experienced this problem with EPO and auto-transfusions.

There are even products that ask the body to secrete the doping hormone itself?

Yes, this is what we call, for example, growth hormone secretagogues. We know how to detect these compounds, but the problem is that they have a short lifespan in the body. The detection window is short.

And gene doping ?

This is the step above. This could involve introducing the gene into the body that codes for an EPO or growth hormone protein, whatever you want…hell. It is a human gene that is cultivated on bacteria and then purified, this is the principle of gene therapy. On this, I am skeptical. Last year, the Cologne laboratory found products containing an EPO transgene on the darknet. But as much as we can drug a mouse with a few milliliters, the quantities to be used in humans are colossal to be effective. We can ask ourselves the question of effectiveness apart from the risk of infection. In addition, the immune system attacks the transgene vector during this manipulation. If you do this on athletes, they risk getting a whole bunch of diseases.

Why are controls not always effective on certain products?

There may be "designer drugs", slightly different products that may miss detection tests. For example, we know how to detect growth hormone secretagogues because the AMA collaborates with the pharmaceutical industry to develop tests for preclinical uses. But a lab had the idea of ​​adding an amino acid to one side of the chain. This changes the molecular mass of the product which becomes undetectable. The effectiveness of controls is based on a very fragile alchemy.

6000 checks planned in Paris

More than a thousand people will control some 4,000 athletes during the competition, under the eye of the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Created in 2018 and partly funded by the International Olympic Committee (IOC), the International Testing Agency (ITA) plans, organizes and manages the results of tests, as in Tokyo in 2021.

Since mid-April, it has been interacting with international federations and national anti-doping agencies to target controls. At the Tokyo Games, 6,200 samples were taken from around 4,000 athletes, with a few positive cases. At the Beijing Winter Games, the case of the young Russian skater Kamila Valieva, tested before the Olympics with trimetazidine, and suspended four years since, hit the headlines.
Biological passports (which trace the monitoring of an athlete’s biological variables) or whistleblowers can trigger a check.

To collect urine or blood samples, more than 300 controllers (Doping control officers or DCOs), a third of whom are French, will be deployed, commissioned by the French Doping Control Agency. fight against doping (AFLD). Athletes will also be escorted by “chaperones” (800 in total with the Paralympic Games), volunteers recruited by the Olympic organizing committee.

In total, around fifty anti-doping stations have been installed at the Olympic sites as well as in the village. The Cojo must also manage the transport of samples to the brand new laboratory in Orsay, south of Paris. It will be done by vehicle on the Olympic routes and by plane from Tahiti for surfers.

Athletes who do not stay in the Olympic Village, like American basketball players, must give their location and are likely to see a doping controller knocking on their hotel door.

New, to comply with the global anti-doping standard, it will be possible to carry out genetic tests. Between this laboratory and the dedicated resources, the Olympics will also “leave a legacy” in terms of anti-doping, according to the boss of the French agency, Béatrice Bourgeois. The AMA will be physically present via observers, who will make comments on a daily basis.

In the event of a dispute, the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) will have a temporary chamber in Paris, during the Olympics, housed at the Paris court.

Is the passport, a biological monitoring of athletes, effective in detecting cheaters ?

There are three modules, a hematological passport, which allows an athlete to be convicted of doping, and the steroidal and endocrine modules, which allow controls to be targeted. It worked very well on EPO. 200 athletes were contaminated thanks to this system.

Is testosterone, which brought down Ben Johnson or Floyd Landis, still widely used??

I think so because it’s still very difficult to detect. We know how to differentiate endogenous from exogenous testosterone because it has a different carbon composition. But we believe that there is precisely a "designer drug" which allows you to escape controls because it has been enriched with carbon.

Overall has science made progress ?

In wrestling yes but also in the physical preparation of athletes. There are extraordinary products. Thanks to a technique called metabolomics, the study of the body's metabolites, we know for a given athlete at what level they must be for optimum performance. We know how to keep the athlete at a top level on the big day thanks to nutrition. We almost make robots. It remains to be seen whether this is supplemented by prohibited products…

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