FENCING
THE COURT OF ARBITRATION FOR SPORT DISMISSES WADA APPEAL IN THE CASE OF YSAORA THIBUS (FRANCE)
Lausanne, 07 July 2025 - The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) has dismissed an appeal by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) against the Fédération Internationale d’Escrime (FIE) and Ms Ysaora Thibus in relation to a potential antidoping rule violation (ADRV).
Ms Thibus is a French fencer and was subject to an in-competition doping control by the International Testing Agency (ITA) at the 2024 Challenge International de Paris on 14 January 2024, which revealed the presence of ostarine. Ostarine is listed as a Prohibited Substance on the WADA Prohibited List (Section S1.2). Ms Thibus was formally charged with an ADRV by the ITA and her case was referred to the FIE Doping Disciplinary Tribunal (DDT). On 4 June 2024, the DDT determined that Ms Thibus was found to bear no fault or negligence and did not impose any period of ineligibility.
On 17 July 2024, WADA appealed to CAS against the DDT decision, rejecting the Athlete’s explanations that the most probable cause for the ADRV was a contamination through kissing with her then partner, who had been using a product containing ostarine without her knowledge. WADA requested that CAS set aside the DDT decision and sanction Ms Thibus with a period of ineligibility of four years.
On 6 March 2025, an in-person hearing took place at CAS headquarters in Lausanne, Switzerland. The CAS Panel considered the evidence and noted 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 Panel also accepted that Ms Thibus’ then partner was taking ostarine from 5 January 2024, and that there was contamination over 9 days with a cumulative effect. The Panel excluded that Ms Thibus intentionally ingested the ostarine in addition to being contaminated.
The CAS Panel ruled that the ADRV for 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.
This is an unofficial summary for media use. Unless Parties request confidentiality, a full CAS Award will be published on the CAS jurisprudence database in due course.
For further information related to the CAS activity and procedures in general, please contact either Matthieu Reeb, CAS Director General,
or Vanessa Tracey, Communications Officer. Palais de Beaulieu, av. Bergières 10, 1004 Lausanne, Switzerland.
