Morgan Barbançon Suspended after Failing to Declare Whereabouts for Doping Tests

Dressage

France

French Olympic dressage team candidate Morgan Barbançon has been suspended by French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) for a three month period starting 30 April 2024.

Barbançon failed to declare her whereabouts three times.

Anti-Doping

The French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) was created in 2006 to define and implement anti-doping measures at national level. AFLD is the result of the merger of the Council for the prevention and fight against doping (CPFD) and the National Doping Detection Laboratory (NDDL).

The FEI is part of a collaborative worldwide movement for doping-free sport led by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). The FEI has developed Anti-Doping Rules for Human Athletes (ADRHA) and for dressage any Athlete who is ranked in the top 300 of the FEI Dressage World Rankings falls under ADRHA.

Whereabouts

Athletes can be tested at events or out of competition. All testing is based on WADA’s International Standard for Testing & Investigations. This ensures that the sample collection procedure followed will be similar whether the sample is collected at a competition or out of competition and regardless of the country where the testing session is taking place

Athletes from target groups are required to communicate their locations and make themselves available to be subject to (potentially unannounced) anti-doping controls.

Evading sample collection, or refusing or failing to submit to sample collection without compelling justification after notification by a duly authorized person can lead to suspension if any combination of three (3) missed tests and/or filing failures happened within a twelve month period.

Suspension

The 31-year old Barbançon was heard by the independent public authority and in her defence she claimed that she encountered "difficulties connecting to the platform."

The AFLD was not entirely convinced by the explanations and suspended her for three months.

This might compromise her French Olympic team selection for Paris. Her only chance to remain eligible for Olympic team selection if she takes the matter up with the Court of Arbitration (CAS) in Switzerland.

Connection Issues

Morgan explained to Eurodressage that in each of the three instances it were connection issues.

With Sir Donnerhall II at the 2023 World Cup Final in Omahat

"Since 2012 I’m on ADAMS (WADA) program so that means since 12 years I have to tell them where I am everyday every moment of the day so that they can come and test me," Morgan told Eurodressage. "In 12 years I have never complained and filled in everything, in 2022 I had had issues changing my localisation while I was in Leipzig and they came at home to test me while I was in Leipzig, second was on the 30th of September the system hadn’t registered my localisation and they realized it on the 3rd of October so they count it as a no show since the 1st and 2nd of October was not filled in. 3rd was when I was in Omaha having bad internet connection and no network while getting there only WhatsApp when I tried to change my localisation I couldn’t receive the SMS of connection and they showed up at home and I was in Omaha so counted it as a no show even though I was tested in Omaha the next day."

Morgan Barbançon is French-Spanish born and represented Spain at the 2012 Olympic Games in London. In 2018 she declared for France. Her family lives in Geneva, Switzerland, but Morgan operates her business out of Massenhoven, Belgium. With the KWPN bred Habana Libre A (by Zizi Top x United) she is in the running for a French Olympic team place as the second best scoring French rider of the moment.

"Yes I’m going to appeal with CAS," she confirmed to Eurodressage.

FFE Statement

In the evening of 30 April the French Equestrian Federation (FFE) issued a statement, mentioning that Barbançon's 3-month suspension started on 10 April 2024.

"The AFLD Sanctions Commission recognized that Morgan Barbançon-Mestre had no intention of evading any control," the FFE stated. "In view of this information, the French Equestrian Federation renews all its support and confidence in Morgan Barbançon-Mestre and continues its discussions with the latter's Council."

Complete statement here.