The second French fencer in as many months tests positive for a performance enhancing substance. Does this indicate increased doping? What does that mean for the rest of the fencing community?
French fencer Loic Attelly, who won silver in the foil at last year’s world championships, denied on Tuesday that he was a drugs cheat despite testing positive for the banned steroid nandrolone.
The president of the French Fencing Federation said the positive result was likely due to a laboratory error.
“I have never made any attempt to cheat,” Attelly told a news conference. “I consider myself to be an honest athlete.”
“We have not been able to shed light on the reason for the positive result,” he said.
Attelly tested positive for nandrolone at a World Cup competition in Caracas, Venezuela, in June.
A test performed on Attelly’s ‘A’ sample in Caracas initially revealed an anomaly. A second test on the same urine sample in Buenos Aires, Argentina, revealed it was positive for nandrolone.
“I think that there were mistakes” with the testing procedures, the president of the French federation, Pierre Abric said.
“Attelly, like all French fencers, does not take drugs. We trust our athlete,” he said.
Neither the laboratory at Caracas nor the one in Buenos Aires are accredited by the International Olympic Committee – meaning Attelly would likely be successful if he appealed against any sanction against him based on those results.
Attelly’s ‘B’ sample was to be tested at an IOC-approved French anti-doping laboratory at Chatenay-Malabry, near Paris. The sample was expected to arrive in France within a few days.
The Attelly case is the second doping affair to hit French fencing in as many months.
Last August, former Olympic champion Laura Flessel tested positive for the banned substance coramine glucose, but claims she was the victim of a blunder by medical staff.
She faces a hearing before the international fencing federation next month.
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