French Olympic gold medalist and short course World Record-holder Amaury Leveaux missed a doping test on Monday. This missed test occurred nearly 2 years after his September 2018 comeback from a 5-year retirement. The swimmer posted about the “unexpected” incident via Instagram on Monday morning.
According to Article 2.4 of the World Anti-Doping Code, if an athlete misses three tests and (or) a combination of the lack of notification of cases, as defined in the international standard for testing and research, during a twelve-month period, it is considered anti-doping rule violation.
In February 2020, 2012 Olympic champion Ruta Meilutyte was banned for 2 years after missing three doping tests in a 12-month period; this same violation led to a 12-month ban for Australia’s Thomas Fraser-Holmes in 2017.
Levaux posted about the missed test, with a laugh, on his Instagram account on Monday. He is currently training in Mulhouse, France.
French Translation — My head when I missed the unexpected doping control at home this morning. (I have no doorbell in my @airbnb and my phone is silent at night) Otherwise good week anyway 🤣🤣🤣
https://www.instagram.com/p/CCkvXM7J1Gj/?utm_source=ig_embed
As part of the World Anti-Doping Agency unannounced testing system, athletes must register at least one hour every day where they will be available for random out-of-competition testing. Athletes register through the ADAMS system and its Athletes Whereabouts function. Athletes can change their whereabouts throughout a season if their location or plans change.
In December 2013, Leveaux announced his retirement from competitive swimming. Five years later in October 2018, Leveaux then relocated to L.A. to train under sprint coach Dave Salo at USC. Yet according to swimrankings.net, Europe’s primary swimming times resource, show that Leveaux’s swims in 2019 and 2020 were under the club “Alliance Dijon Natacion”, meaning he did return to France after his 2018 move to L.A. In July 2019, Leveaux clocked his first official LCM 50 free time during his comeback, swimming a 22.73.
A few months later, Leveaux swam a 48.71 in the SCM 100 free. He then competed at the 2019 French Short Course Championships in December, posting a 21.71 in the 50 free and 23.04 in the 50 fly. Leveaux’s last recorded swim was at the 2020 Grand Chalon National Meeting from January 31-February 1. There, he put up a 23.40 in the 50 free and a 24.98 in the 50 fly.
Before his 2018 comeback, Leveaux was a member of France’s 2008 silver medal-winning 4×100 free relay at the 2008 Olympics. He also picked up an individual silver medal in the 50 free after breaking the Olympic record during prelims. A few months later at the 2008 Short Course European Championships, Leveaux broke the 100 free world record with a 44.94, which still stands today. Four years later at the 2012 Olympics, Leveaux led off the winning 4×100 free relay after making his comeback at the 2012 European Championships, along with picking up a silver from the 4×200 free relay. At the 2013 World Championships, Leveaux won a gold medal after swimming the preliminaries of the 4×100 free relay.
I didnt realise he was still around…
It should be standard to test at training all these athletes have set training hours. Going to peoples houses unannounced is an invasion of privacy. So many dopers get away with it any way that athletes shouldn’t have to put up with this.
The thing is – the athletes actually get to choose which hour of the day they are available for. So, if they wanted to exclusively test during training hours, they could just pop open the app, update their whereabouts, and do so.
Yes, he chose that time but amazingly, he was surprised at the person showing up.
If you know that you are likely to be tested it is obvious that your phone must be put on silent and that the doorbell must be disabled
It happens more often than you think.
I swam my last Olympics with two no-shows myself, completely unintentional both of them, the tension is real!
For those of you who don’t speak French, the Instagram post basically said that he stands with the US administration and does not support wada. From now on he’ll skip further testing until they make some changes.
Im kidding of course. 😄
Sketch, I wouldn’t guess the leave quickly…