Anti-doping agents were unable to locate France’s star swimmer Leon Marchand for a doping test earlier this week – but it wasn’t his fault, according to L’Equipe.
Drug testing agents arrived at the Olympic village, where he had been staying, on Monday morning, July 29 at 5:45 AM, to, among other things, test Marchand.
The problem was that Marchand was not there, as he had been granted permission by the French Swimming Federation to stay outside of the Olympic village, along with many other athletes, seeking better sleeping conditions ahead of the start of his 200 breast/200 fly double on Tuesday.
Marchand did not have any swims on Monday, but a day earlier would have been out very late to do media and drug testing after winning his first gold medal in the men’s 400 IM.
But the missed test will not be a mark on Marchand’s register because he and his team properly updated his whereabouts filing in the ADAMS system and it was the drug testers who made a mistake.
Still, the timeline illuminates another flaw in an increasing list of them for the anti-doping system. At least one Chinese swimmer has publicly complained about drug testers showing up and interrupting his sleep in the run-up to the Olympic Games. In the case of Marchand, he was drug-tested around midnight, a mandated consequence of winning a gold medal, and then again within 6 hours.
The testers also woke up the other swimmers who were sharing an apartment with Marchand, including Yohann Ndoye Brouard, who had the 100 backstroke final that day.
Athletes in the WADA drug testing pools are required to provide a 60-minute time slot 365 days a year where they will be available and accessible for testing, though there has been increasing noise from athletes that testers have arrived outside of those windows.
