Suspended for two years by the sanctions commission of the French Agency for the Fight against Doping (AFLD) in 2019, Ophélie Claude-Boxberger saw, on Tuesday April 26, her sanction increased to four years by the Council of State, highest administrative jurisdiction in France. Tested positive at the EPO in 2019, the athlete has always demanded release, while the president of the AFLD asked that his sanction be increased to eight years.
While she had resumed competition in the fall of 2021, after two years of suspension, Ophélie Claude-Boxberger sees her suspension extended by two years. The athlete has however always demanded release, accusing his father-in-law and trainer, Alain Flaccus of having injected him with doping products against his will, but the president of the AFLD college has seized the Council of State to contest this prohibition limited to two years and the absence of financial sanction. Believing that the athlete had been guilty of falsification, she even demanded that the suspension of Ophélie Claude-Boxberger be increased to eight years.
In a press release, the Council of State justified its decision: “For this dispute similar to that between the president of the AFLD and the cyclist Marion Sicot (whose doping suspension was also increased to four years in March) and judged last March, the Council of State considers that neither the duration reduced to two years adopted by the Sanctions Committee, nor the duration extended to eight years requested by the president of the agency, are justified with regard to the elements advanced by the parties. This is why the Council of State is today extending the ban on Ophélie Claude-Boxberger to four years and modifying the decision of the AFLD Sanctions Committee..
In the Claude-Boxberger clan, misunderstanding dominates: “VSt is a denial of justice, the human being is flouted. To support its justification, the Council of State notes that the AFLD has put forward new expertise which would corroborate the thesis of proven doping, but these elements are fallacious and are based on a pseudo positive control at the world championships. of Doha in 2019, of which no one has ever had proof”reports Jean-Michel Serra, companion of Ophélie Claude-Boxberger and former federal doctor.
According to him, the athlete, who had just resumed competition, was dejected: “This is news that has upset her enormously, she is at the bottom of the hole with the darkest ideas, it calls everything into question. She always had in mind the goal of lining up for the Paris 2024 marathon. , but with the decision that is made, she will not be able to take part in competitions before May 2024 and the qualifying races will surely have already passed”says Jean-Michel Serra.