Tue, July 08, 2025
Thibus cleared of doping after kissing partner taking banned substance
French Olympic fencer, Ysaora Thibus, has had her four-year doping charge removed because she kissed her partner, Race Imboden, who was taking ostarine. Thibus tested positive for ostarine in January 2024. However, she was permitted to compete at the Paris Olympics because the International Fencing Federation (FIE) cleared her.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) appealed this decision and called for Thibus to be banned from the sport for four years. Effects of the anabolic substance ostarine include muscle growth, fat loss, improved strength, increased endurance, faster recovery, joint support and enhanced bone health. Therefore, ostarine is considered a banned substance by WADA.
However, Thibus has now been cleared of this charge on the basis of contamination because she was kissing her American partner at the time, Race Imboden, over a period of nine days and he was taking the drug. Imboden himself is a two-time Olympic fencing bronze medallist for the U.S.
The judges upheld that Thibus was contaminated “through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge.”
They argued 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.”
During Sport Resolutions’ 2025 annual conference, leading sports lawyer, and the Independent Chair appointed to the Jannik Sinner anti-doping contamination case, Mark Hovell, discussed the former French tennis player Richard Gasquet whose case can be likened to Thibus’ as he was cleared of testing positive for cocaine after proving that he was contaminated after kissing a woman in a nightclub. Cocaine is banned under the WADA Code because as a stimulant, it can produce an intense ‘rush’ with users feeling a sense of alertness, arousal, and increased confidence.
As Thibus was in an actual relationship with Imboden, and Gasquet was luckily able to get the woman he kissed to provide evidence, both were fortunately able to evade punishment. However, Hovell highlighted that other athletes who may choose to kiss random people or have one-night stands may not be so lucky because “they may not have the evidence they need” to prove their innocence if they become contaminated.
Travis Tygart, CEO of the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) and another of Sport Resolutions’ speakers at its recent conference, voiced: “I think based on the cases we’ve seen, watch who you kiss and watch out who you have an intimate relationship with.”
Tygart stated that WADA should raise the minimum reporting level of substances that could be sexually transmitted, such as clostabal and ostarine, so that if anti-doping laboratories found a trace amount in an athlete’s sample, they would not risk a sanction.
He voiced: “I think it’s a pretty ridiculous world we’re expecting our athletes to live in, which is why we’re pushing to try to change these rules to make it more reasonable and fair…
The onus is always on the athletes – we as anti-doping organisations, need to take some of that responsibility back. And I worry how many of the intentional cheats are actually getting away because we’re spending so much time and resources on the cases that end up being someone kissing someone at a bar.”
Thibus has achieved an Olympic medal, a world title, two world silver medals and seven world bronze medals, along with a dozen European podiums and several Grand Prix and World Cup medals. She is reportedly set to return during the 2025-26 season after recovering from surgery and is looking forward to doing so under far less scrutiny now her name has been cleared.
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