The AFLD’s 2022 activity report emphasizes that the Agency is fully committed to preparing for the Paris 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games (OG) alongside sporting institutions, in order to ensure a comprehensive and robust anti-doping system, recently reinforced by the articles of the « loi du 19 mai » on the Olympic Games.
One year ahead of the opening of the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the Agency has been working for many months to put in place a comprehensive and robust anti-doping program focused on the future French delegation and its support staff, in application of the objectives of its 2022-2024 strategic plan. AFLD can rely on the network of anti-doping referents in the 90 national federations, half of whom will have been trained by the Agency by 2022.
As the national authority responsible for anti-doping education, by 2022 the Agency has trained 89 educators from federations, players’ unions and training structures such as INSEP. They will be able to rely on an e-learning platform developed in 2022 and implemented from mid-2023. Their role will be to train athletes and training managers, in order to promote anti-doping prevention among top-level athletes, as well as schoolchildren and young club athletes.
Preparations for the 2024 Olympic Games mean that AFLD will be focusing even more on its core missions. In 2022, AFLD passed the milestone of 10,000 tests. More than three-quarters of these tests involved international or national-level athletes. These tests are no longer produced randomly, but are based entirely on criteria specific to disciplines, sports and athletes’ performances. Whereabouts rules have been extended to apply to a greater number of top-level athletes, particularly those involved in team sports.
Sustained result-management activity :
Disciplinary activity has also been stepped up: more than 80 cases were processed in 2022, nearly 60 of which resulted in sanctions. Half of these sanctions resulted from a decision by the « Commission des sanctions », the other half from an administrative conciliation agreement signed by the athlete. This procedure has reduced the average time required to process cases to around 7 months.
In terms of intelligence and investigations, the AFLD received 127 reports of anti-doping rule violations. AFLD forwarded 13 reports to the judicial or administrative authorities, or to other anti-doping organizations, and opened 11 investigations into non-analytical violations (failure to comply with whereabouts obligations, falsification, etc.). At the same time, 5 investigations were closed, leading to the first sanctions handed down at the end of this investigation procedure.