
For them too, the Games were intense. The French anti-doping laboratory (LADF) was working at full capacity during Paris 2024. More than 4.000 athletes were tested last summer, or 39% of participants. 6.130 samples were analyzedand five tested positive. "We were in all one hundred people working in the laboratory. Normally, there are forty of us, said Magnus Ericsson, director of the LADF, in an interview with L'Equipe.The samples arrived at five o'clock (in the morning). We had a processing time of thirty-six hours, and we were well within that time frame, usually four hours ahead. It was like a military operation."The result appears to be a success, even if Magnus Ericsson hopes for the collaboration of pharmaceutical companiesto go even further in terms of efficiency. "It should be one of the main tasks to understand what is happening there, what kind of substances are in phase 1 studies to become drugs, because that is where those who want to cheat start looking", he emphasizes. Hence the interest in being one step ahead.