Almost a year after its revelation in broad daylight with the withdrawal of Daniel Jérent from the list of selected, the incredible soap opera which deprived the swordsman of the Tokyo Olympics is nearing its epilogue.

The 31-year-old shooter intends to clear his name on Wednesday, crossed out at the last moment by the French Fencing Federation due to an anti-doping procedure targeting him.

A decision is expected in the days following Wednesday its public hearing before the sanctions commission of the French Agency for the fight against doping (AFLD).

"Not a Cheater"

"I would really like to be freed from this, to prove to everyone categorically that I am not a cheater", delivered the swordsman in mid-April to AFP.

"There is no possible agreement from the moment I have done nothing."

The Rio-2016 Olympic team champion rejected the AFLD's offer to drop the charges without sanction against him.

With this one, proposed because of "the elements brought in the fall" by the person concerned, the AFLD already accredited the explanation of Daniel Jérent.

Namely that the dorzolamide (a product with a diuretic effect) detected during a check in November 2020 came from blood transfusions carried out after a road accident suffered in April in Guadeloupe, the native island of the fencer.

Problem, "it was specified in this agreement that Daniel recognized having violated the world anti-doping code", details to AFP his lawyer Me Jean-Jacques Bertrand.

"There is no possible agreement from the moment I have done nothing, insists Daniel Jérent. We have been able to demonstrate that the product came from blood transfusions after my accident. They want more. They do not want not recognize their wrong, there are questions of credibility."

Not to mention that it would have closed the door to a possible claim for compensation for his damage: his absence from the Tokyo Olympics last summer.

Dorzolamide, usually found in the form of eye drops to lower eye pressure in case of risk of glaucoma, can also be diverted to mask the use of prohibited products.

The link with the transfusions was slow to be established by the fencer, because between the date of these and that of the positive control in November 2020, two tests had come back negative.

Their reliability is in question, according to Me Bertrand.

After several months of an investigation initiated in May 2021 when the swordsman and his entourage became aware of a possible fallibility of the negative tests of July and September 2020, two bags of blood from the CHU of Guadeloupe having been used for transfusions were analyzed .

One of them did come out positive for dorzolamide.

Record "extremely favorable"

Which makes Me Bertrand say that this file is "extremely favorable to the athlete".

Reason for which, he and his client requested the publicity of the audience of Wednesday, request accepted by the commission.

"It remains heavy as long as things are not clear and written black on white, regrets Daniel Jérent. It leaves room for doubts."

Especially since in June 2018, due to three breaches of his location obligations (“no shows”), the native of Saint-Claude had been suspended for one year.

He was able to return just in time for the Worlds-2019, qualifiers for Tokyo, and the French swordsmen had won gold in Budapest with Daniel Jérent on the track.

Without him, they took the door in the quarter-finals in Japan.

But Romain Cannone, drafted in extremis as third French shooter for the individual in the absence of Daniel Jérent had won the first French gold medal of the Olympics.

Rarely has one person's misfortune brought so much happiness to another.

© 2022 AFP