Shari Bossuyt tested positive for Letrozole in March 2023. The World Track Champion (Madison) and current competitor on the Cayon-SRAM Racing team has dedicated the last 11 months to searching for evidence that would prove her innocence. However, this task proved fruitless due to the lack of means to demonstrate contamination through food intake.
This case is similar to that of Cyclocross cyclist Toon Aerts, who also tested positive for the same substance, immediately after events in the city of Flamanville, France, as Giro do Ciclismo previously revealed . Despite competing in different types of sport, both were affected by this incident.
2 year suspension
Both received 2 year bans after long battles. Bossuyt announced the receipt of the suspension by the anti-doping agency:
“On December 4th, I received the decision from the AFLD (anti-doping agency) with a proposal for my suspension. As expected, they proposed a two-year ban. They confirm and recognize the fact that the contamination may not have been intentional. But we cannot, as with Toon Aerts, prove the origin of the contamination. For that reason, they cannot limit the punishment further.”
Therefore, the ban will remain until March 2025, which means another year without competing for the 23-year-old. “I don’t have the strength or money for this,” she says.
“The feeling of fighting a losing battle, the sleepless nights of constant worry and the financial suffering of having to spend tens of thousands of euros on a business already lost because, made me decide to leave it at that…”, concluded Shari Bossuyt.