Doping: Ysaora Thibus definitively cleared by the Court of Arbitration for Sport

It took time and a lot of courage. But French foil fencer Ysaora Thibus's fight to restore her honor came to an end on Monday, July 7. The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) rejected the appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA), which challenged the lifting of her suspension following a positive test for ostarine in January 2024.

It was during the Paris International Challenge that everything went wrong. The Olympic team vice-champion in Tokyo tested positive for ostarine, a banned anabolic agent. The news broke in early February 2024: provisional suspension. The shock was immense for the athlete, who immediately claimed to be the victim of an unintentional contamination.

Her defense, as unexpected as it is rigorously documented, is based on a rarely accepted hypothesis: that of transmission through bodily fluids, through kisses exchanged with her partner at the time, former American foil fencer Race Imboden. The latter had consumed contaminated food supplements.

A line of defense already accepted in other disciplines (notably in the case of tennis player Richard Gasquet), but which provokes skepticism and mockery in the sporting world. However, the anti-doping disciplinary tribunal of the International Fencing Federation (FIE) is convinced. In May, it lifted his provisional suspension, considering that the presence of the prohibited substance was "not intentional."

WADA, dissatisfied, filed an appeal with the CAS. It requested a four-year suspension. Ysaora Thibus, for her part, began a race against time to return in time for the Paris Games, amidst heavy uncertainty. She resumed training without knowing whether she would be allowed to compete or whether the FIE's ruling would be upheld.

On Monday, the CAS rendered its decision. It confirmed the fencer's version: "It is scientifically established that the ingestion of a dose of ostarine similar to that ingested by ^Ms. Thibus's partner at the time was likely to leave sufficient quantities of ostarine in the saliva to contaminate a person by kissing them," the statement read. "The presence of ostarine was not intentional," the judges concluded.

In other words: Ysaora Thibus is completely innocent. Not due to a procedural flaw or lack of evidence, but because the facts demonstrate that she never attempted to dope. This truth, however, comes too late to save her season. Sidelined for nearly five months, deprived of training with her fencing master, Ysaora Thibus attempted to return to competition in June 2024, at the European Championships in Basel. But her left knee failed her in her first bout. Injured, she had to withdraw. At the Paris Olympics, she didn't make it past the first round in the individual competition, before being eliminated in the quarterfinals with the French team.