French Olympic hurdler suspended for evading drug tests

On Thursday, the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU) announced the suspension of French hurdler Wilfried Happio. The 26-year-old Olympian faces a two-year ban for, on three occasions in one year, failing to provide accurate and up-to-date whereabouts to the AIU, as required for mandatory drug testing.

Any member of the World Athletics registered testing pool is required to provide the full addresses of and time periods spent at locations of regular training, work, schooling and overnight stays. Athletes must also provide a daily one-hour period and location where they will be available for testing. This enables the AIU to locate athletes without prior notice to test and identify those who cheat by doping.

A whereabouts failure is warranted by an athlete’s failure to submit their whereabouts by the established deadline, or a failure to an updated or complete location or adequate instructions to enable a doping control officer to carry out testing. For example, an athlete must update their location if going on vacation. Missing a test at the established location during the allotted 60-minute time frame also constitutes a whereabouts failure.

Three combined instances of whereabouts failures in a 12-month period amounts to an anti-doping rule violation.

“We will take time to analyse and we will present our arguments to the AIU,” Happio’s lawyer, Anthony Mottais, told Reuters.

Happio is a U20 and U23 European champion in the 400m hurdles, with a personal best of 47.41 seconds. He represented Team France at the 2024 Paris Olympics, where he advanced to the semi-finals. In 2022, Happio was assaulted 20 minutes before racing at the French Track and Field Championships; with a bandage eye, he went on to win the national title with a personal best time. At that year’s European champs, Happio placed second behind 2023 world champion Karsten Warholm.