Tennis Player Goncalo Oliveira Suspended for Doping: Claims a Kiss as the Cause
In a surprising turn of events, professional tennis player Goncalo Oliveira has been suspended for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA). The sanction comes after a positive test for methamphetamine. Oliveira, who represents Venezuela, was provisionally suspended in January 2024 after a test conducted in November 2023 during the ATP Challenger event in Manzanillo, Mexico. Both samples, A and B, revealed the presence of the prohibited substance. The tennis player, born in Portugal, denied having consumed the drug and presented his defense before an independent tribunal. However, the tribunal determined that Oliveira could not prove that the presence of the drug in his system was involuntary. Despite the suspension, Oliveira will receive credit for the time he was provisionally suspended, which means he will be able to compete professionally again on January 16, 2029. In August 2020, Oliveira reached the 77th position in the world doubles ranking, the highest of his career.This case is reminiscent of others in the sports world where athletes have alleged that a kiss was the cause of a positive result in a doping test.
French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was exonerated in July of a doping accusation after judges accepted that she was contaminated with the anabolic substance Ostarine in 2024 by kissing her American partner for nine days. Thibus was subsequently acquitted by a court of the International Fencing Federation weeks before the Paris Olympics, allowing her to compete. In 2009, Richard Gasquet avoided a lengthy doping suspension when the International Tennis Federation tribunal panel ruled that he had inadvertently consumed cocaine by kissing a woman in a nightclub.
