French fencer cleared of doping charge on account of kissing her American partner
The Court of Arbitration for Sport (Cas) ruling echoed a verdict clearing another French athlete with a similar defense in a doping allegation – tennis player Richard Gasquet in the celebrated 'cocaine kiss' case in 2009.
Cas said in the Thibus case its judging panel dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (Wada), which asked for her to be banned for four years.
Thibus tested positive for the anabolic substance ostarine in January 2024. She was later cleared by an International Fencing Federation tribunal weeks before the Paris Olympics, which let her compete there.
Wada challenged the explanation that Thibus was contaminated 'through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge,' Cas said.
The court said Monday '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 Cas judges 'accepted that Ms. Thibus' then-partner was taking ostarine from 5 Jan, 2024, and that there was contamination over nine days with a cumulative effect.'
Her partner at the time was Race Imboden, a two-time Olympic fencing bronze medalist for the United States.
Thibus, a silver medalist for France in women's team foil at the Tokyo Olympics, placed fifth at that event in Paris and 28th in the women's individual foil.
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Her son is still in her car and he's concerned. Alba is hoping that three weeks worth of work will be enough to save up and get out of France and jet for Barcelona. It's hard work, and Alba is very much an outsider here. She doesn't speak Arabic like the others, and Arnaud is threatened by her presence. He confronts her and demands she meet in the field the next day. Alba is given accommodation though in the form of a bungalow, but it's also rigged with cameras too. She's watched while she converses with Leo, practicing their Spanish and generally getting along well. Before work, Alba heads out to meet Arnaud Lasserre but instead, she finds him lying on the ground, bleeding out. It appears he's been stabbed in the gut… but by who? Alba packs her stuff, preparing to leave, but the police get there first. They want to take her statement down at the station and there's no getting around this. To make matters worse, they also dig into her past and find her criminal record. Back then she was an addict and charged with violence, theft and drug abuse. One of the employees also saw her fleeing the scene, so it doesn't look good. The detective also has surveillance footage of Alba racing away, eyewitness reports from her chat with Lasserre the previous day, and obviously her past record too. None of this puts her in a particularly good position. To complicate matters, Lasserre's Will reveals a massive shock. It turns out Arnaud actually has 4 children, not 3. And the fourth? Yep, you guessed it – it's Alba! She's taken aback and refuses to believe this. Unfortunately, from the outside it definitely looks like a great motive for murder. However, the Will also states that if someone is involved in a murder then they're not granted anything. This means that if the courts find Alba guilty, she won't be entitled to any of the inheritance. Thankfully, Alba isn't alone here. She's joined by a lawyer called Manon Simoni, who shows up to to help Alba. Now, without a murder weapon, some flimsy photos and a poor witness statement from the family, who can't be trusted (we'll get to that in a minute), Alba's prospects are made a little better. It turns out the Lasserre family are not squeaky clean. In fact they lied about what happened. The day before the murder, the entire family gathered for Maison Oris, one of the biggest perfumers. They showed up, wanting to buy the estate to get exclusive access to the roses. While they would offer a good pay-day, the Lasserre family would be allowed to keep running the farm. However, Arnaud is too proud to let his business go and refuses to sell, much to the shock and anger of his family. That means that one of the family actually have a motive, and Manon knows this because she's actually Arnaud's granddaughter. Alba is eventually released from custody, and she returns to Leo. She definitely doesn't trust Manon though, but she wants to help and find out the truth. Manon is convinced they can prove she's been framed, but that obviously stems from finding evidence – and that's not going to be easy with these people. Well, you'd think anyway. In the next scene, one of the siblings, Lucie, finds the murder weapon is found in a zipped up bag in the back of the toilet, much to her shock. At Arnaud's funeral, his wife Beatrice uses ChatGPT to write a eulogy and doesn't look particularly bothered by his death. In fact, she opens the casket, looks at him and scoffs, walking out and calling it a joke. Whether she's actually part of this or just a red herring though, is unclear right now. With the family out and busy, Alba manages to hack into the computers in the office, where she finds a whole folder with her name on, including a ton of different pictures. Unfortunately, she can't pry too much further because an error message flashes up, deleting everything as a safety precaution. 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