Fencer's contamination explanation kisses off doping charge

French fencer Ysaora Thibus, shown in 2022, was cleared of doping charges after it was determined that kissing introduced a banned substance into her system.

French fencing champion Ysaora Thibus was not to blame after she tested positive for a banned substance last year.

The culprit? Nine days of contaminated kisses.

That is what the Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled this week when it dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency, which had been seeking a four-year ban for the 2022 world champion in women’s foil after the prohibited anabolic substance ostarine was found in her blood during a January 2024 blood test.

The CAS said in a news release Monday that it accepted Thibus’ explanation that the ostarine had entered her bloodstream because her then-partner had been using a product containing the substance without her knowledge. The two had exchanged bodily fluids through kissing.

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The evidence “scientifically established that the intake of an ostarine dose similar to the dose ingested by Ms. Thibus’ then partner would have left sufficient amounts of ostarine in the saliva to contaminate a person through kissing,” the court said. “The Panel also accepted that Ms Thibus’ then partner was taking ostarine from 5 January 2024, and that there was contamination over 9 days with a cumulative effect.”

The court concluded that Thibus had not intentionally violated the rules. “It is not questionable that Ms Thibus bears no fault or negligence,” the news release states.

Thibus had maintained her innocence throughout the process. Joelle Montlouis, one of the fencer’s attorneys, told French news outlet L’Equipe that the ruling was a “great victory” for her client.

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“She showed remarkable courage and held firm, against all odds, until the end of the procedure,” Montlouis said in French, translated via software. “At no time did we deviate from our course: From the first instance to the CAS, we maintained the same line, the same backbone, faithful to the reality of the facts.”

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Ostarine was detected in Thibus’ blood during an in-competition check by the International Testing Agency at a fencing event Jan. 14, 2024, in Paris.

The agency initially charged Thibus with an anti-doping rule violation, but an International Fencing Federation tribunal later cleared her and allowed her to compete in the Paris Olympics, where she was eliminated after the second round of competition.

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WADA, the anti-doping agency, rejected Thibus’ kissing explanation and appealed the ITA decision in July 2024. The arbitration court held an in-person hearing in March before making its ruling.

In a somewhat similar case in 2009, WADA and the International Tennis Federation appealed to have Richard Gasquet serve a two-year ban after testing positive for cocaine. But the arbitration court ruled in the French tennis player’s favor, accepting his explanation that he inadvertently consumed the drug — which was present in a “minute” amount, the CAS said — by kissing a woman at a nightclub.

“I’m absolutely relieved,” Gasquet said at the time. “This is the end of a crazy story.”

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

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