Former French cyclist Marion Sicot, tested positive for EPO in 2019 and suspended for four years, admitted to doping from 2016 to 2019 on Wednesday during her trial in Montargis, for possession and importation of doping products.
“I regret having cheated, having lied, I dirtied my sport,” declared Marion Sicot, 32, before the criminal court of Montargis (Loiret). Sometimes moved to tears, with a bicycle tattooed on her right arm, the sportswoman said she had “not been able to say no in this quest for performance”. “I wasn’t doing well, I went to the facility.”
Until now, Marion Sicot had only publicly spoken about an EPO injection, after a positive test in June 2019 following the French Road Championships. Facts that she had initially rejected in their entirety, before recognizing them in March 2020. This control had initially earned the athlete a two-year suspension, a sentence increased to four years by the Council of State after a procedure lasting almost three years.
At the bar, this time she admitted all the facts of doping, revealed by the investigations carried out following her control, in particular different doping protocols with erythropoietin, but also with clenbuterol – a product intended for horses -, between 2016 and 2019.
“I wanted to reveal part of what I had done, that I had cheated, without taking full responsibility,” she explained. Marion Sicot had also previously motivated this injection by the hope of putting in a performance and regaining the trust of her manager, the Belgian Marc Bracke, of the Doltcini-Van Eyck team, from whom she hoped to break away by obtaining a good result. The latter, against whom she had filed a complaint for sexual harassment in August 2022, dismissed, had committed suicide in October 2022. “At that time, I was not well. I was in my bubble and the bike was my whole life, I saw that my level was declining and, mentally, I was no longer there,” she also confided.
Sicot: “Turn the page and pursue a new life”
The former cyclist, now licensed at the Châteauroux triathlon club (Indre) and self-employed in sports coaching, has repeatedly insisted that doping is “an integral part of this sport”. But for her, “there was no professional benefit”. She described her fear of disappearing from sport and her three years of professional cycling, a level “which cost her money” due to her low pay, without doping allowing her to compete with the best in her sport.
“Sport and the law have a common base,” summarized prosecutor Jean-Cédric Gaux, pointing to “half-confessions” and sometimes “disempowering” assertions. He requested a one-year suspended prison sentence for him, as well as a fine of 5,000 euros. “Marion Sicot has already paid, heavily, with this suspension which cost her her sporting career,” argued her counsel, Me Grignard.
At the end of the hearing, she said she was “relieved”. “I will be able to turn the page and continue this new life.” To dope, Sicot obtained her supplies via the internet, or from a relative, for payments of between 500 and 1,200 euros. This friend, a former semi-pro cyclist also called to appear, admitted to importing, administering and possessing doping products.
“It saddens me that she found me on her way” to doping, he said, indicating that he had acted out of financial interest. A third defendant, a doctor suspected of having illegally issued prescriptions for the purpose of prescribing EPO, denied the facts. Sentences of 18 months suspended prison sentence, accompanied by a fine of 10,000 euros, and 18 months suspended imprisonment accompanied by a fine of 20,000 euros, with a ban on practicing the activity of a doctor during two years, were respectively requested against the two other defendants. Judgment scheduled for January 22, 2025.
Mathieu Idiart with AFP Journalist RMC Sport
