One of the world’s top fencers has been cleared of charges that she used performance enhancers after she was found to have tested positive for a banned substance after she had been ‘contaminated by love’.
Ysaora Thibus, an Olympian from France, was cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday.
Judges accepted her defense that she had been contaminated because she kissed her American partner over the course of nine days.
It’s a similar defense to that of former French tennis star Richard Gasquet, who cleared his name after testing positive for cocaine by claiming he French-kissed a stripper in a Miami nightclub.
By clearing her name, the CAS dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency – who was requesting Thibus be banned for four years.
Back in January 2024, Thibus tested positive for ostarine – an anabolic substance. She was later cleared by an International Fencing Federation tribunal in the weeks leading up to the 2024 Summer Olympic Games in Paris.
French fencer Ysaora Thibus has been cleared of a doping charge by the CAS on Monday
Thibus successfully defended that she was contaminated through kissing her then partner – male model and former two-time Olympic Bronze medalist fencer Race Imboden
Thibus claimed that she was contaminated ‘through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge.’
WADA challenged that assertion, but the courts ruled in the fencer’s favor.
The court said 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.’
Judges from the CAS ‘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.’
At the time, she was dating male model and two-time Olympic fencing bronze medalist Race Imboden.
Imboden claimed that he had been taking ostarine to restore the muscle tone he’d lost since retiring in order to benefit his modelling career.
Thibus won a silver medal in the women’s team foil at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021. In her home nation, she placed fifth in the team event and 28th in the women’s individual foil.
