Female fencer cleared of doping charges thanks to… kissing her boyfriend

French fencer Ysaora Thibus escaped doping charges for a rather unusual reason.

Ysaora Thibus cleared of doping charges - Photo: AFP

Early on July 8, Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was cleared of doping charges because judges accepted the argument that she was exposed to a banned substance by kissing her American boyfriend over a nine-day period.

According to The Guardian , the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has rejected an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which requested a four-year ban on her.

The French athlete previously tested positive for the anabolic steroid ostarine in January 2024.

WADA rejected the explanation that she was infected "through kissing her then-boyfriend, who had used a product containing ostarine without her knowledge", CAS said.

The latest CAS ruling makes it clear: there is scientific evidence that ingesting the same amount of ostarine as her boyfriend did would leave enough in saliva to infect another person through kissing.

CAS judges accepted that Thibus's then-boyfriend had taken ostarine from 5 January 2024 and that the infection had accumulated over nine days.

Her boyfriend at the time was Race Imboden, a two-time Olympic bronze medalist in fencing for the United States.

Thibus, who won a silver medal for France in the women's foil team event at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, ranked fifth in the same event at the 2024 Paris Olympics and 28th in the women's foil individual event.

The ruling also recalls a similar case that exonerated another French athlete with a similar plea – tennis player Richard Gasquet in the famous “cocaine kiss” case in 2009.

THANH DINH

Source: https://tuoitre.vn/nu-kiem-thu-duoc-xoa-cao-buoc-dung-doping-nho-hon-ban-trai-20250708084939383.htm