The Flückiger affair must lead to a reform of the fight against doping, proclaims Swiss Cycling

Published on October 18, 2024 at 2:12 p.m. / Modified on October 18, 2024 at 3:28 p.m.

This is the conclusion of a story that should never have happened. The International Cycling Union (UCI) and the World Anti-Doping Agency will not forward the Mathias Flückiger case file to the Court of Arbitration for Sport to request a new sanction. After eight hundred days of legal-sporting battle, the Bernese mountain bike specialist, now 36 years old, is cleared of any suspicion of cheating. But Swiss Cycling does not want to stop there: it demands a reform of the fight against doping to prevent such an embarrassing case from happening again in the future.

Let’s rewind to August 19, 2022, the day of the race for the European cross-country title, in which Mathias Flückiger, reigning Olympic vice-champion, is due to participate. Shortly before departure, we learned that this would not be the case: he had just been informed of the positive result of an anti-doping test carried out two months earlier as part of the Swiss Championships (where he wore gold). He is accused of using zeranol, a banned anabolic substance that had previously never been detected in an athlete’s blood. This earned him a temporary suspension but a permanent label: that of cheater.

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