French Olympic fencer cleared of doping, kissing contaminated sample

French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus has been cleared of a doping charge, after the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) accepted that a positive result for a banned substance was likely the result of the athlete kissing her boyfriend.

The CAS on Monday said that it had dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) and ruled that Thibus' intake of anabolic agent ostarine "was not intentional, and that it is not questionable that Ms Thibus bears no fault or negligence."

Thibus tested positive for ostarine in January 2024 and charged with a potential antidoping rule violation. The International Fencing Federation's Doping Disciplinary Tribunal (DDT) later cleared the athlete, allowing her to take part in the Paris Olympic Games, where she did not medal.

WADA then challenged the explanation accepted by the DDT for the positive test: that it was contaminated through Thibus kissing her then-partner, US fencer Race Imboden, who at the time was taking a product containing ostarine unbeknown to her.

"The CAS Panel considered the evidence and noted that it is 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 in a statement.

"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 Panel excluded that Ms Thibus intentionally ingested the ostarine in addition to being contaminated."

The case is reminiscent of that of French tennis player Richard Gasquet, who in 2009 was cleared of any fault or negligence after testing positive for a cocaine metabolite.

The CAS ruled that "on a balance of probability," Gasquet's sample was likely the result of an incidental exposure when the player kissed a woman in a nightclub in Miami.