Unless there is a call, she will be able to defend the colors of France on the Grand Palais track on July 28. Provisionally suspended since February 8 due to a positive test for ostarine, an anabolic agent, French fencer Ysaora Thibus, 2022 world foil champion, was not sanctioned by the disciplinary tribunal of the International Federation fencing (FIE), we learned on Tuesday May 21, eight days after being heard by an independent commission of the body.
The Tokyo Olympic team vice-champion pleaded – successfully – to “contamination by bodily fluid” by her companion. Firmly denying having administered any doping substance, Ysaora Thibus endeavored to demonstrate, with the help of recognized scientists, that she did not take this substance regularly – by analyzing her hair – and that her companion , the former American foilist Race Imboden, had absorbed enough of it (through food supplements) to determine that it was indeed the source of his contamination.
“It’s a lot of emotion and […] a huge relief. I felt such a weight in recent months,” commented the French foil fencer, interviewed by Agence-France-Presse. Recalling that she “did not commit any negligence”, she added: “I always wanted to win in a certain way, in accordance with my values. It is important that my integrity is recognized. »
The 32-year-old shooter tested positive in mid-January during the Mazars challenge and then suspended, before defending herself before the FIE tribunal on May 13. The anabolic agent that had been detected in small quantities in his body, ostarine, increases muscle mass and has been banned since 2015 by the World Anti-Doping Agency. It is taken orally (tablet, capsule, liquid). In order to benefit from an accelerated procedure – and thus hope to save her participation in the Olympics – Ysaora Thibus had renounced the analysis of the B sample of her control.
Banned from access to federal training facilities during the duration of her suspension, and deprived of competitions since January, Ysaora Thibus claims to have “kept physically” in shape, and could return to the slopes during the European Championships in Basel (Switzerland), June 17-23 – the ultimate opportunity to prepare for it. “I can’t wait to be able to find a fencing ring again, shout for the touch of victory and fight again with my teammates,” Ysaora Thibus said in a press release.
The one who represents one of the best French chances of a medal in fencing this summer faces up to four years of suspension. But she is not yet at the Paris Olympic Games: she remains under threat of an appeal from the FIE or the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) who have twenty-one days to appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (TAS) from the decision.