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A French Olympic fencer’s contaminated kiss defense was enough on Monday for the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) to clear her of a doping allegation.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) asked for Ysaora Thibus to be banned from competition for four years after she tested positive for the anabolic substance ostarine in January 2024. An International Fencing Tribunal initially cleared Thibus, allowing her to compete in the Paris Olympics.
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France’s Ysaora Thibus reacts after losing the women’s individual foil round against Poland’s Julia Walczyk Klimaszyk during the Paris Olympics on July 28, 2024. (AP Photo/Andrew Medichini, File)
However, WADA challenged the explanation that Thibus was contaminated “through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge,” the CAS said.
The CAS cleared Thibus after judges accepted that she was contaminated by kisses from her American partner over a period of nine days.
The court said on Monday, “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.”
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Ysaora Thibus, left, competes against Julia Walczyk-Klimaszyk at the Paris Olympics, July 28, 2024. (Andrew P. Scott-USA Today Sports)
CAS judges “accepted that Ms. Thibus’ then-partner was taking ostarine from Jan. 5, 2024, and that there was contamination over nine days with a cumulative effect.”
Thibus’ partner at the time was Race Imboden – a two-time Olympic fencing bronze medalist for the U.S.
Thibus finished fifth in the women’s team foil in Paris Olympics and 28th in the women’s individual foil. She was a silver medalist in the women’s team foil event in the Tokyo Games.
Ysaora Thibus in a women’s foil individual table of 32 match during the Olympic Summer Games at Grand Palais in Paris on July 28, 2024. (Andrew P. Scott-USA Today Sports)
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She won a world championship in 2022 in individual foil.
The Associated Press contributed to this report.
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