Legendary: 80 year-old grandma in doping scandal, stripped of world record

An 80-year-old cyclist has been stripped of an age group world record and handed a one-year ban by the United States Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) after testing positive for a prohibited substance.

Barbara Gicquel was tested after provisionally setting a 500 metres time trial world record in the women’s 75 to 79 age group on August 29 last year.

A sample provided by Gicquel following a request from USA Cycling was found to have contained metabolites of methyltestosterone, an anabolic agent.

USADA has annulled all of her results since August 29, 2015 after Gicquel admitted using a medication which contained the banned substance since March 2005.

She had retroactively applied for a therapeutic use exemption (TUE), which was rejected by USADA.

USADA said Gicquel did not declare the medication on any of her previous doping control forms.

“Her TUE application was denied because the documentation she submitted did not establish that she had a medical condition that required the use of methyltestosterone and indicated that her use of the medication was likely to provide an additional athletic performance benefit beyond a return to a normal state of health,” USADA said in a statement.

Gicquel has also lost titles in the individual pursuit, sprint and time trial, including age group records in the 200m flying start time trial and 2km individual pursuit, following the disqualification of her results.

She attempted to contest her results being annulled but an independent arbitrator “concluded that Gicquel’s results should be disqualified starting August 29, 2015, the date on which she first learned that her medication contained a prohibited substance”, USADA said.