Christophe Cheval is a French

France

The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...

 sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres

200 metres

A 200 metres race is a sprint running event. On an outdoor 400 m track, the race begins on the curve and ends on the home straight, so a combination of techniques are needed to successfully run the race. A slightly shorter race, called the stadion and run on a straight track, was the first...

.

At the 1998 European Championships

1998 European Championships in Athletics

The 17th European Athletics Championships were held from 18 August to 23 August 1998 in Budapest, the capital city of Hungary.-Track:1990 |1994 |1998 |2002 |2006 |-Field:1990 |1994 |1998 |2002 |2006 |-Track:1990 |1994 |1998 |2002 |2006 |-Field:...

 he finished sixth in his main event and won a silver medal in 4 x 100 metres relay

4 x 100 metres relay

The 4 × 100 metres relay or sprint relay is an athletics track event run in lanes over one lap of the track with four runners completing 100 metres each. The first runners begin in the same stagger as for the individual 400 m race...

 with teammates Thierry Lubin

Thierry Lubin

Thierry Lubin is a French sprinter who specializes in the 200 metres.At the 1998 European Championships he won a silver medal in 4 x 100 metres relay with teammates Christophe Cheval, Frederic Krantz and Needy Guims...

, Frederic Krantz

Frédéric Krantz

Frédéric Krantz is a French sprinter who specialized in the 200 metres.At the 1998 European Championships he won a silver medal in 4 x 100 metres relay with teammates Thierry Lubin, Christophe Cheval and Needy Guims...

 and Needy Guims

Needy Guims

Needy Guims is a retired French sprinter who specialized in the 100 metres.At the 1998 European Championships he won a silver medal in 4 x 100 metres relay with teammates Thierry Lubin, Frederic Krantz and Christophe Cheval...

. As the European champions Great Britain fielded their own World Cup team, the French relay team was selected to represent Europe at the 1998 IAAF World Cup, finishing sixth while Great Britain won the event.

Cheval later finished fifth in relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics

2000 Summer Olympics

The Sydney 2000 Summer Olympic Games or the Millennium Games/Games of the New Millennium, officially known as the Games of the XXVII Olympiad, were an international multi-sport event which was celebrated between 15 September and 1 October 2000 in Sydney, New South Wales, Australia...

, this time with teammates Krantz, Guims and David Patros

David Patros

David Patros is a retired French sprinter.He finished fifth in relay at the 2000 Summer Olympics, with teammates Frédéric Krantz, Christophe Cheval and Needy Guims...

. He also reached the semifinals of the World Indoor Championships in 1997

1997 IAAF World Indoor Championships

The 6th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held at the Palais Omnisports de Paris-Bercy in Paris, France from March 7 to March 9, 1997. It was the first athletic championships to introduce women's pole vault...

 and 1999

1999 IAAF World Indoor Championships

The 7th IAAF World Indoor Championships in Athletics were held in the Green Dome Maebashi stadium in Maebashi, Japan from March 5 to March 7, 1999. It was the first time the Championships were staged outside Europe or North America. Primo Nebiolo, president of the IAAF, characterized the...

. His personal best time was 20.41 seconds, achieved in July 1998 in Dijon

Dijon

Dijon is a city in eastern France, the capital of the Côte-d'Or département and of the Burgundy region.Dijon is the historical capital of the region of Burgundy. Population : 151,576 within the city limits; 250,516 for the greater Dijon area....

.

In 2001 Cheval was found guilty of nandrolone

Nandrolone

Nandrolone is an anabolic steroid that may be present naturally in the human body, albeit in minute quantities of less than 0.4 ng/ml. Nandrolone is most commonly sold commercially as its decanoate ester and less commonly as a phenylpropionate ester...

 doping. The sample was delivered at the 2001 World Championships

2001 World Championships in Athletics

The 8th World Championships in Athletics, under the auspices of the International Association of Athletics Federations, were held at the Commonwealth Stadium, Edmonton, Alberta, Canada between 3 August and 12 August and was the first time the event had visited North America...

in Edmonton, Canada. He received an IAAF suspension from January 2002 to January 2004.