The Luxembourg Anti-Doping Agency (Agence Luxembourgeoise Antidopage - ALAD) has just taken stock of its doping controls for the year 2023.
The past year was marked by changes within the ALAD administrative team, with the departure of its general secretary, Dr Anik Sax, and Céline Godart, administrative manager, who were replaced by Loïc Hoscheit, newly appointed Director, and Laure Muller, replacing Céline Godart.
According to ALAD, these transitions have been seamless as the agency continues to play its role in preserving the integrity of sport in Luxembourg, aiming to ensure that athletes respect anti-doping rules, educating athletes of all ages and all sports to good practices and ensuring “rigorous and targeted controls”.
Over the past year, the ALAD carried out a total of 187 urinary checks on Luxembourg territory through its control agents, who number 36. In addition, at the request of the ALAD, 45 additional controls were carried out abroad specifically targeting athletes in the Luxembourg target group.
Among the 232 urine tests carried out in total, 124 were carried out during sports competitions, of which 52 were requested by the sports federations themselves. Outside of competitions, the ALAD also carried out 108 unannounced checks on elite Luxembourg athletes, including 45 checks carried out abroad. It is important to note that among these 108 tests, 74 included blood samples in addition to urine samples, thus allowing more in-depth monitoring of the athletes in question.
Finally, as part of the biological passport, an essential tool in the detection of doping practices, the ALAD carried out a total of fourteen checks on five athletes. These controls aim to monitor long-term variations in various biological parameters of the athletes being tested, to detect any abnormalities that may indicate the use of prohibited substances.
In addition to the 232 checks carried out, there were ten “no-shows”, or attempts at checks to which the athletes did not show up. Additionally, there were twelve cases of “filing failure,” meaning athletes failed to provide their location data into the ADAMS system for a specific period. It is important to note that an athlete is only sanctioned if he accumulates 3 “failures” – that is to say “no-show” or “filing failure” – during the past twelve calendar months, which was not the case for any athlete monitored by the ALAD in 2023.
Concerning the in-competition controls, the management of the results was entrusted for 32 of them to the international federation concerned, because these competitions appeared on their sporting calendar.
All 232 analyses were negative and no athlete licensed in Luxembourg tested positive in 2023.
In alignment with its role in education and anti-doping prevention, ALAD has also organised presentations to various sports federations, such as the Luxembourg Football Federation (Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Football – FLF), the Luxembourg Rugby Federation (Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Rugby - FLR), the Luxembourg Federation for martial arts (La Fédération Luxembourgeoise des Arts Martiaux - FLAM), the Luxembourg Basketball Federation (Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Basket Ball - FLBB), the Luxembourg Volleyball Federation (Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Volleyball - FLVB), the Luxembourg Gymnastics Federation (Fédération Luxembourgeoise de Gymnastique - Flgym) as well as the Luxembourg Cricket Federation (LCF).
The ALAD was also present at events such as the COSL Spillfest and the Sports Night in Niederanven, where it carried out education and prevention work among as many people as possible.
In addition, the agency continued its partnership with the Sportlycée, by organising a question-and-answer session with former professional tennis player Mandy Minella as well as training sessions with content adapted to each age group.
In collaboration with ALAD, the National Institute of Physical Activity and Sports (Institut National de l'Activité Physique et des Sports - INAPS) also played a key role in offering “doping-free sport” training to coaches of different levels. This training aims to raise awareness among future coaches about doping and to prevent prohibited practices at all levels of Luxembourg sport.
Finally, ALAD obtained the ISO 9001:2015 certification for several essential areas, such as planning and carrying out controls, results management, preventive measures as well as education and prevention.
