New Doping Lab for Paris, New Sports Director

(ATR) A thoroughly modern lab will be ready by 2023...New sports directorate chief prepares for 2024.

Guardar

(ATR) A state of the art drug testing lab will be ready to go in Paris, one year ahead of the 2024 Olympics.

AFLD, the French Anti Doping Agency, has won the government support needed to move ahead with construction of a new laboratory.

AFLD has been working for several months on a project to relocate its anti-doping laboratory to prepare for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games.

The agency says the new facility is needed to "strengthen its detection capabilities and develop its research activities and innovation".

Paris-Sud University's proposal for a site on its Orsay campus was chosen by the agency.

"AFLD and its laboratory team are particularly pleased. France is thus demonstrating its commitment to pursuing a policy of excellence in the fight against doping, serving the ethics of sport," says the agency statement.

AFLD says that locating the lab on a prestigious university with leading research teams and technology in the field of analytical chemistry "opens up very promising prospects for scientific collaboration".

Pre-construction and relocation studies will be initiated "very quickly" by AFLD and Université Paris-Sud, so that the new laboratory is operational for the 2023 Rugby World Cup. That would allow the lab to be fully tested in time for the 2024 Olympic and Paralympic Games .

The new lab will replace the 30 year-old facility in the Paris suburb of Châtenay-Malabry. The lab was suspended for failing technical standards in 2016, but has since been recertified by the World Anti Doping Agency.

The government will spend 10 million euros on the project. Construction is to start in 2020.

Sprinter Leads French Sports Directorate

The former sprinter Gilles Quénéhervé is named head of the Sports Directorate, a key position in the French Ministry of Sports.

The medals-winner at world champs and the Olympics 30 years ago, Quénéhervé has risen through the ranks of the civil service.

He takes the post as French sports authorities try to assemble a a plan to win the most medals, including gold.

"We have a potential to win around 40. If we progress and reach 60, we can have maybe 20 gold medals," opined French National Olympic and Sports Committee President Denis Masseglia.

He spoke to reporters Wednesday before going into a meeting with leaders of Olympic federations.

The best finish for France at an Olympic Games is 15 gold medals at Atlanta 1996.

Reported by Miguel Hernandez.

Guardar

Últimas Noticias

Utah’s Olympic venues an integral part of the equation as Salt Lake City seeks a Winter Games encore

Utah Olympic Legacy Foundation chief of sport development Luke Bodensteiner says there is a “real urgency to make this happen in 2030”. He discusses the mission of the non-profit organization, the legacy from the 2002 Winter Games and future ambitions.
Utah’s Olympic venues an integral part of the equation as Salt Lake City seeks a Winter Games encore

IOC president tells Olympic Movement “we will again have safe and secure Olympic Games” in Beijing

Thomas Bach, in an open letter on Friday, also thanked stakeholders for their “unprecedented” efforts to make Tokyo 2020 a success despite the pandemic.
IOC president tells Olympic Movement “we will again have safe and secure Olympic Games” in Beijing

Boxing’s place in the Olympics remains in peril as IOC still unhappy with the state of AIBA’s reform efforts

The IOC says issues concerning governance, finance, and refereeing and judging must be sorted out to its satisfaction. AIBA says it’s confident that will happen and the federation will be reinstated.
Boxing’s place in the Olympics remains in peril as IOC still unhappy with the state of AIBA’s reform efforts

IOC president details Olympic community efforts to get Afghans out of danger after Taliban return to power

Thomas Bach says the Afghanistan NOC remains under IOC recognition, noting that the current leadership was democratically elected in 2019. But he says the IOC will be monitoring what happens in the future. The story had been revealed on August 31 in an article by Miguel Hernandez in Around the Rings
IOC president details Olympic community efforts to get Afghans out of danger after Taliban return to power

North Korea suspended by IOC for failing to participate in Tokyo though its athletes could still take part in Beijing 2022

Playbooks for Beijing 2022 will ”most likely” be released in October, according to IOC President Thomas Bach.
North Korea suspended by IOC for failing to participate in Tokyo though its athletes could still take part in Beijing 2022