Tennis Player Suspended for Doping: The Bizarre Kiss Defense
The International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) has suspended professional tennis player Goncalo Oliveira for four years, who claimed that a kiss was the cause of his positive test for methamphetamine. Oliveira, who represents Venezuela, was provisionally suspended in January 2024, after testing positive in a control carried out in November 2023 during an ATP Challenger event in Manzanillo, Mexico. Both his A and B samples contained 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 was involuntary. Oliveira is given credit for the time served during his provisional suspension, which means he will be able to compete professionally again on January 16, 2029. Oliveira reached his best doubles ranking in August 2020, reaching the 77th position in the world.This case recalls other incidents in the world of sport where it has been alleged that a kiss caused a positive result in a doping control.
French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was cleared 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 later exonerated 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 inadvertently ingested cocaine by kissing a woman in a nightclub.
