It’s a new twist on French kissing.
A female fencer who competed for France in the 2024 Paris Olympics has been cleared of accusations she was taking performance-enhancing drugs because an appeals court ruled the guilty party might actually have been a former romantic partner.
When the pair were swapping spit, apparently, she was getting more than she expected from her American boyfriend.
French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus escapes doping ban with kissing defense https://t.co/AwYx9UZk9p pic.twitter.com/Aba0BTMhAA
— New York Post (@nypost) July 7, 2025
According to CBS News, French fencer Ysaora Thibus fended off an effort by the World Anti-Doping Agency to have her banned from the sport for four years.
In a decision announced July 7, the Court of Arbitration for Sport, based in Lausanne, Switzerland, upheld a decision by the International Fencing Federation that found that Thibus was not to blame for the presence, in her saliva, of ostarine, a substance used by some athletes to promote muscle growth.
Thibus argued that the positive tests, which came back in January 2024, were caused by her kissing then-beau Race Imboden, an American fencer and fellow Olympian.
Competing in the women’s team foil, Thibus won the silver medal for France in the 2021 Olympics (the COVID-delayed 2020 Games.). Imboden won the bronze for the U.S. in 2021 and 2016.
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Imboden did not compete in 2024 in Paris, but Thibus did, after the decision by the International Fencing Federation’s Doping Discipline Tribunal, and was part of a team in women’s foil that placed fifth, according to CBS News.
She placed 28th in the women’s indidual individual foil, according to CBS.
Even though Thibus competed in Paris, the World Anti-Doping Agency pushed the case to the appeals court and its ruling on Monday.
French Olympic fencer, Ysaora Thibus, has had her four-year doping charge removed because she kissed her partner who was taking ostarine > https://t.co/iCqPEHcg5x@FIE_fencing pic.twitter.com/GJqEvBBPKN
— Sport Resolutions (@Sport_Res) July 9, 2025
In a news release about the ruling, the court said it decided “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 appeals court that “the presence of ostarine was not intentional, and that it is not questionable that Ms Thibus bears no fault or negligence. The DDT decision is upheld and the appeal is dismissed.”
Doping is serious business in the world of sports competition, of course. Whether on the U.S. national stage or in the world’s spotlight, doping scandals can damage the trust of fans that they are seeing legitimate athletes striving to push the human body to its physical limits — without the aid of chemical enhancements.
And when athletes are proven to have been guilty of using such enhancers, the impact is damning.
Ask Lance Armstrong if he’ll ever live it down.
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