Suspended for doping, French sprint champion Mouhamadou Fall sees the Olympic Games slip away

Mouhamadou Fall avait plaidé la contamination par des compléments alimentaires. MAXPPP – STADION-ACTU

Contrôlé positif en juillet 2023, le quadruple champion de France du 100 m a été suspendu neuf mois, ce lundi 29 avril. Ce qui le prive des JO à Paris, cet été.

French sprinter Mouhamadou Fall was notified on Monday of his nine-month suspension by the sanctions committee of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) after testing positive for a banned stimulant , announced to the AFP his lawyer, Christophe Ayela.

Tested positive in July  2023 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 via food supplements. He is suspended for nine months "from today", said Me Ayela, adding that he was studying appeals.

"Unfair decision"

"It’is an extremely serious and unfair decision", reacted the lawyer, who received on Monday afternoon the decision of the sanctions commission of the AFLD, an independent body. "Everyone agrees to say that it has never doped and is the victim of contamination via food supplements", he added.

Sixth at 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. In the decision of the sanctions commission, "he is accused of not having been careful enough in the choice of food supplements", explained Monday Me Ayela.

Appeal before the Council of State?

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, indicated Me 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 filed an appeal before the Council of State which is still pending.

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