French fencer Ysaora Thibus was exonerated by the anti-doping disciplinary tribunal of the International Fencing Federation (FIE), which did not impose any sanctions against her, paving the way for her participation in the 2024 Olympics. Provisionally suspended since February 8 due to a positive test for ostarine, an anabolic agent, the Tokyo Olympic team vice-champion successfully pleaded “contamination by bodily fluid” via her companion.
“It’s a lot of emotion and a lot of joy. Even physically, there is a huge relief. I felt such a weight in recent months, reacted the 2022 individual world champion. Given the situation, I was not negligent. I always wanted to win in a certain way, in accordance with my values. It is important that my integrity is recognized. »
Thibus, like Halep, saved by a toxicologist
The 32-year-old fencer, an immense chance of a medal for France, remains under threat of an appeal from among others the FIE or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) who have 21 days to appeal to the Arbitral Tribunal of sport (TAS) from the notification of the reasoned decision.
“There would be a procedure on the merits, with very long delays. The only possibility [pour empêcher la présence d’Ysaora Thibus aux Jeux olympiques] would be a second procedure which would aim to obtain provisional measures, such as giving a suspensive effect to the decision,” however underlined Me Monlouis.
Through comparative analyzes of strands of hair and nails, the Guadeloupean managed to demonstrate that the ostarine detected in her sample on January 14 during the World Cup stage in Paris had entered her body via the bodily fluids of his companion Race Imboden, a former high-level American fencer. The toxicologist working in his defense team, Jean-Claude Alvarez, had already reduced the sanction of tennis player Simona Halep, from four years to nine months of suspension on appeal.
A final competition to prepare for the Games
The cross-contamination defense had already cleared tennis player Richard Gasquet, exonerated in 2009 after a positive test for cocaine, but also the Canadian Olympic canoe vice-champion Laurence Vincent-Lapointe or the American softball player Madilyn Nickles in 2020.
Banned from access to federal training facilities for the duration of her suspension, Ysaora Thibus claims to have “kept physically in shape”. “Since I was 7, I grew up fencing almost every day. Being deprived of it was psychologically complicated, admitted the foilist. But the important thing was to be ready. If I had the chance and the opportunity to make this decision, it was not an option to arrive completely tired. »
Deprived of competitive tracks since January, he still has one final competition to prepare for before the Olympic Games: the European Championships in Basel (Switzerland) from June 17 to 23.