French sprinter Mouhamadou Fall suspended for nine months for doping

The four-time French 100-meter champion will not be able to participate in the Paris Olympic Games this summer.

Mouhamadou Fall will not go to the Olympic Games: after his positive test for a banned stimulant last July, the French sprinter was notified on Monday of his suspension for nine months by the sanctions commission of the French Agency for the Fight 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, pleaded accidental contamination via food supplements. He was suspended for nine months “from now on”his lawyer, Me Christophe Ayela, told AFP, adding that the sprinter could appeal to the Council of State.

An “extremely serious and unfair” decision

“This is an extremely serious and unfair decision”added the lawyer, who received Monday afternoon the notification of suspension from the AFLD sanctions commission, an independent body before which Mouhamadou Fall appeared on April 10.

“Everyone agrees that he has never doped and that he is the victim of contamination via food supplements”added Me Ayela. “This explains this minimum suspension but it is already too much for a bona fide athlete.”

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 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.

The food supplements in question

Without contesting the thesis of contamination, the representative of the AFLD college, Antoine Marcelaud, requested a 15-month suspension instead of the two years incurred. In the decision rendered Monday, explained Me Ayela, “we criticize (the athlete) for not having been careful enough in the choice of food supplements”.

With this suspension, Mouhamadou Fall sees his participation in the Olympic Games this summer in Paris disappear. Quadruple French champion over 100 meters (2020, 2021, 2022, 2023), the athlete returned to school in mid-March in the United States.

When his positive test was made public in September, the athlete had already been the subject of another procedure with the AFLD which still accuses him of three breaches of his anti-doping localization obligations in 2022.

The acquittal at first instance that he obtained in this first case in July 2023 allowed him to participate in the French championships (where he tested positive for heptaminol) and the World Championships. Following this acquittal, the AFLD filed an appeal before the Council of State, which is still ongoing.