France’s anti-doping laboratory has been provisionally suspended from carrying out any tests by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
The embarrassing news for the French anti-doping agency centre at Chatenay-Malabry comes only two weeks after Paris was named as the host of the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.
In a statement, WADA said it was provisionally suspending the lab’s accreditation ‘due to analytical issues.
“This provisional suspension was imposed due to analytical issues self-reported to WADA by the laboratory.
“The provisional suspension, which took effect on 24 September 2017, prohibits the Paris Laboratory from carrying out any anti-doping activities, including all analyses of urine and blood samples.
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“The provisional suspension will remain in place pending disciplinary proceedings being carried out by an independent discplinary committee.
During this period, all samples at the lab, including those which have already tested positive for a banned substance, must be transported to another WADA-accredited centre.
Paris joins Bogota, Lisbon, Los Angeles and Mexico City on the list of suspended labs.
The Paris lab was used by UEFA during last year’s Euros and does the bulk of the testing for the Tour de France. It is also the same lab where disgraced cyclist Lance Armstrong’s samples had been tested.
