Former French cyclist Marion Sicot, tested positive for EPO in 2019 and suspended for four years in March 2022, will be tried this Wednesday, November 20 before the Montargis court (Loiret), in particular for possession and importation of doping products.
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It is the trial which will allow her, she says, to “turn the page“. Marion Sicot, aged 32, will be judged this Wednesday, November 20 in Montargis, notably “for acts of importing and possessing doping products”namely erythropoietin, public prosecutor Jean-Cédric Gaux told AFP.
Testing positive for EPO (Erythropoietin. a hormone which stimulates the production of red blood cells, editor’s note), in June 2019 during the French Road Championships, the athlete was suspended for two years. A sentence increased to four years by the Council of State at the end of a procedure lasting almost three years. Publicly, the ex-cyclist, now a converted triathlete, has only acknowledged an EPO injection in 2019.
But according to investigations, facts from 2016 to 2019 were revealed, leading to his summons to court. After initially denying the facts following the check, she admitted to having injected the product three days before the race, in the hope of performing well and regaining the trust of her manager, the Belgian Marc Bracke, of the Doltcini-Van Eyck team. She had described a phenomenon of “control” of the latter, from which she hoped to break away by obtaining a good result.
Marion Sicot had told, notably in her book entitled “Harassed, doped but back!” and published in 2021, having been sidelined from her team in spring 2019 for stopping sending Marc Bracke photos of herself in underwear.
But the cyclist’s complaint for sexual harassment against her former manager was dismissed in August 2022. Marc Bracke, suspended for three years by the UCI in connection with this affair, committed suicide the following October at the age 53 years old.
The athlete, who indicated on her Instagram account that she had returned to competition in March after her suspension, is now licensed at the Châteauroux triathlon club, in Indre. “It’s the logical procedure.”she reacted in September in the regional daily Le Télégramme. “I paid with sporting justice, I think with the maximum penalty. I had to pay criminally too”.
“I know that I risk a suspended prison sentence, a fine, but for my lawyer, no prison time. No one likes to go to court, but I have no choice. After that, I will really be able to turn the page“, she said.
Contacted by AFP, Marion Sicot’s lawyer did not wish to communicate before the trial, which will begin at 1:30 p.m. before the Montargis criminal court.
During the hearing, will also be judged “an acquaintance” of the ex-cyclist, who allegedly helped her administer the products and a doctor, suspected of having illegally issued prescriptions for the purpose of prescribing EPO. According to the prosecution, the latter disputes the facts.
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