The Athletics Integrity Unity announced on Friday that it has issued a provisional suspension to Cyréna Samba-Mayela for whereabouts violations.
According to the AIU, Samba-Mayela, 25, accrued three violations in a 12-month period, which constitutes an anti-doping rule violation and is subjected to 2 years of ineligibility. The sanction can be reduced to a minimum of 1 year depending on the athlete’s degree of fault.
Samba-Mayela’s official notice of the failure was listed as September 18 and if the ban is upheld, it would end more than a month after the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which conclude on July 30, 2028.
“I confirm that Cyréna Samba-Mayela has never returned a positive result on any anti-doping test,” her representative said in a statement to Agence France-Presse. “The procedure mentioned is ongoing before the AIU and concerns exclusively administrative whereabouts requirements, and not the use of any substance whatsoever.”
Samba-Mayela competes for France in the hurdles and in the 2024 European Championships in Rome she set a national record in the women’s 100m hurdles with a 12.31. She was also the only French athlete to win a track and field medal at the Paris Olympics that same year when she took narrowly took silver in 12.34 behind Masai Russell’s 12.33.
She saw limited action this year and ran a season’s best 12.50 in the women’s 100m hurdles at the ATX Classic in Georgetown, Texas in June. Samba-Mayela would later pull out of the European Athletics Championships in August due to injury and not defend her title.
For several weeks I have been dealing with physical pain that has already prevented me from defending my chances in the French Championships,” she said in a message on social media. “Despite all the efforts made with my team to return in the best conditions, my preparation was severely hampered.”
Under the AIU’s classification of a whereabouts failure, any of Samba-Mayela’s three violations could have been amassed through filing failures, missed drug tests, late filing, inaccurate information or improper information discovered during an attempted test.
The agency says any athlete can challenge the ruling through its standard administrative review, which Samba-Mayela is prepared to pursue, according to her representatives.
“She continues to respond within the allotted timeframe and to cooperate fully. Out of respect for this procedure, she will not be making any further comment,” the representative said in its statement.
