A sigh of relief!
French open water swimmer Marc-Antoine Olivier, who was under threat of suspension for three breaches of his whereabouts obligations, said he was “released” on Wednesday after being cleared at first instance by the Anti-Doping Chamber of the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
However, the International Federation (World Aquatics) or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) can still appeal the decision to the CAS.
“With what I experienced, I am completely liberated.
It was a very long procedure,” said Olivier, who has just won two silver medals at the Doha Swimming Worlds, in the 10 km and 5 km open water, as well as his qualification for the Olympic Games in Paris in six months.
He “did not commit three no shows within a year”
After a hearing held last week, "the CAS decided that no violation of the anti-doping rules relating to breaches of whereabouts obligations had been committed, to the extent that the breaches invoked by World Aquatics were not did not occur during a period of 12 months,” explained the swimmer’s lawyer, Me Olivier Ducrey, in a press release.
“The CAS concluded that there was no violation of the rules and rejected the accusations.
» Requested by AFP, the authority specified that Marc-Antoine Olivier had “not committed three no shows within a year”, and that “the temporal element” had been “important” in the decision rendered.
He faced up to two years of suspension.
Marc-Antoine Olivier, bronze medalist at the Rio Olympics in 2016, traveled to Qatar without being sure of being able to take part in the competition.
He only learned he could compete when he arrived in Doha on February 2, 48 hours before the start of the 10 km.