The laboratory of the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD), formerly located in Châtenay-Malabry, was officially transferred in mid-May to the Paris-Saclay university campus in Orsay, a little more than a year before the Paris Olympics. , said Wednesday the president of the AFLD Dominique Laurent.
“The Châtenay-Malabry site has been abandoned and now the laboratory has been transferred to Orsay within the Paris-Saclay University, and is operating,” she said during a press conference.
“WADA accreditation (World Anti-Doping Agency, editor’s note) for the Olympics is in progress. We can say that we are ready. It had to be done a year before the Olympics,” she added.
The AMA accreditation, necessary to be able to officiate during the Olympic Games, should be obtained “at the beginning of next year”, specified Dominique Laurent. “We are on schedule,” she said.
The International Testing Agency (ITA) will officiate during the Olympic Games for the organization of anti-doping, and the AFLD will be the logistics provider.
The AFLD laboratory, completely moved in mid-May to Essonne, will be the only one authorized to analyze the samples that will be taken during the Olympic period.
Nearly 45 people work in this laboratory, which in 2022 analyzed more than 10,212 samples, 75 of which revealed abnormal results (0.71%).
During previous Olympics, the average of samples over the competition period was “around 6,000 for the Olympic Games”, and “nearly 2,000 for the Paralympics”, according to AFLD Secretary General Jérémy Roubin.
This influx of samples to be analyzed over a short period will lead to the “doubling” of the laboratory’s workforce, explained Dominique Laurent.
“For the period of the Olympics, the laboratory will almost double, to almost 90 people, many of whom will come from other anti-doping laboratories around the world,” she said.