French Olympian Ysaora Thibus has been cleared of a doping charge and avoided a four-year ban after successfully arguing that she was contaminated with a banned substance through kissing her partner, former U.S. Olympian Race Imboden.
Thibus, a member of the French fencing team, tested positive in January 2024 for ostarine, a substance that’s believed to promote muscle and bone growth. It is not FDA approved and is banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).
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A doping tribunal of the International Fencing Federation determined prior to the 2024 Olympics in Paris that Thibus bore no fault or negligence for ingesting the substance after she argued that she had been contaminated via an exchange of bodily fluids with Imboden. She’d claimed that Imboden had taken ostarine on Jan. 5.
“I categorically deny that I have used doping,” Thibus wrote after her positive test. “My many negative doping tests are proof of this.”
Thibus, a silver medalist at the Tokyo Games, was allowed to compete at the Paris Olympics in her home country. WADA has since appealed the decision to clear Thibus to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) and asked CAS to reject the argument that she was contaminated by Imboden. Per The Athletic, WADA sought for Thibus to be disciplined with a “period of ineligibility of four years.”
CAS held an in-person hearing of the appeal at its headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland, in March. On Monday, a panel of CAS judges issued its verdict clearing Thibus of a doping violation.
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Per the verdict obtained by the Guardian, CAS judges determined 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 CAS judges also accepted that “Ms. Thibus’ then-partner was taking ostarine from 5 Jan, 2024, and that there was contamination over nine days with a cumulative effect.”
Thibus, 33, is cleared to compete in further international competition. She finished fifth in women’s team foil in Paris and 28th in the women’s individual foil.
Imboden, a three-time Olympian fencer for Team USA and two-time Olympic bronze medalist (2016 and 2021), did not compete in the Paris Olympics.
