Jeannie Longo seeking €1.1 million in damages from AFLD

Image 1 of 2

Jeannie Longo is suing the French Anti-Doping Agency (AFLD) for over €1.1 million. The 55-year-old, whose case was presented before the Conseil d’État in Paris on Monday, has contested her inclusion on the AFLD’s list of targeted athletes in 2012 and 2013, and is also seeking damages relating to the 2011 revelation that she had recorded three whereabouts violations.

Longo served no ban for missing tests as it was later shown that she had not been formally notified by the AFLD of her inclusion in the out-of-competition testing pool for 2010 and 2011. She was formally added to the testing pool in both 2012 and 2013.

In September 2011, L’Équipe also reported that Longo’s husband Patrice Ciprelli had purchased EPO. Ciprelli was later indicted for importing EPO, and the charges were confirmed by a court of appeal on November 7 of this year.

“Madame Longo has a difficult, indeed conflictual, relationships with the French Anti-Doping Agency,” investigating judge Xavier Domino noted at the beginning of Monday’s hearing, according to Midi Libre.

Domino recommended that the financial aspect of the case should be decided by the administrative court in Grenoble, and he rejected Longo’s claim that her inclusion in the AFLD’s testing pool for 2012 and 2013 constituted an attack on her private life.

The AFLD’s measures were “necessary and proportionate,” Domino said, adding that Longo’s “practice of a sport affected by doping and her pursuit of a high-level career at an unusual age” was not incompatible with her inclusion among the targeted pool of athletes.

For its part, Longo’s legal team has argued that the AFLD cannot provide justice as it is responsible for both anti-doping tests and deciding on anti-doping sanctions. The Conseil d’État is due to announce its findings on the matter in the coming weeks.