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.
No worries! I’m banned for not being found and then gave negative test 3 hours later.
Ok at least this isn’t his fault but 345 AM ain’t it
5.45AM and I was banned for missing one and giving a negative one 3 hours later. Missed at 6am because I was asleep didn’t hear my doorbell and then 2 year ban. Different countries, different rules !
guess what will happen if it is Panzhanle
Chinese athletes are tested 5 times more than any other athletes. Its to disrupt their preparation and training. WADA is controlled by the USA
Chinese have failed more drug tests than any other country.
bruh chinese team has insane number of tests(19000+), yet they have the lowest positive rate(0.2%).. you clearly have no idea about the drug test.
The American team has purple faces after finishing swimming. What did they consume to get the purple faces? By the way, the US swimming team has a higher positive rate (3.3%) than the Chinese team.
Here come the overdramatic chinese fans. Leon Marchand didn’t shake a hand of a Chinese coach. Next day, there are multiple Chinese fans in his instagram comment section quoting “your racist” “you’re a drug cheat”. So overdramatic.
Ok can you imagine if a Chinese swimmer did that, there’d be an uproar in the SS comment sections.
At the end of the day fans from both sides are just really passionate, I think any country’s fans would have reacted like that…
if Pan doesn’t shake hands with Leon’s coach, what would you say? oh come on, you know you are double standard
doping for sure
Marchand did not miss a drug test anymore than someone missed a bus because the bus did not turn up at the bus stop but went omewhere else . Terrible clickbait headline there
I don’t love the headline here. “Marchand misses early morning drug test” still sounds bad, even those the rest of the headline makes clear it wasn’t his fault. Marchand didn’t miss anything; the testers missed him.
As a comparison, suppose I am giving an exam and show up to the wrong classroom. My students are all sitting in the correct classroom but can’t take the test because I’m not there. I wouldn’t say “Students miss exam after instructor makes error”. It would be “Students can’t take exam after instructor makes error” or “Instructor makes error and can’t give students exam”.
I feel like a similar change would be appropriate here. Maybe it’s a minor point—great reporting as always!
I think it errs on bad reporting and is clickbait at best
Which is sadly a reality of swimswam. Constant clickbait and poor reporting. Anything to get a reaction. Yellow papers
I’ve noticed some rlly bad titles over the last year that has made me disappointed. I get how this all works but some of them have been really irresponsible imo. This one is wtv
Well it’s certainly an extremely effective attention-grabber. Headline writing 101.
In meme terms — they had us in the first half, not gonna lie.
I have to agree with Andy here (as I often do). SwimSwam is justified in doing *some* click-bait-y titles and I support their overall journalism almost every time. But Leon is likely the best thing to happen to the sport of swimming since Phelps, so let’s not throw him under the bus with a headline that some ignorant folks are going to interpret unfairly. +1 everything Andy said. SwimSwam, you’re not wrong, but you can do better.