Tennis Player Suspended for Doping: Claims Kiss as Cause
Professional tennis player Goncalo Oliveira, representing Venezuela, has been suspended for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency (ITIA) after testing positive for methamphetamine. Oliveira’s provisional suspension began in January, following a positive doping test in November 2024 during an ATP Challenger event in Manzanillo, Mexico. Both sample A and B of the player 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. Due to the time elapsed since his provisional suspension, Oliveira will be able to compete professionally again on January 16, 2029. In August 2020, Oliveira reached the 77th position in the world doubles ranking, his best career position. This is not the first time an athlete has claimed that a kiss caused a positive result in a doping test.French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was exonerated in July by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) of a doping accusation. The judges accepted that she was contaminated with the anabolic substance Ostarine in 2024 by kissing her American partner for nine days. Weeks before the Paris Olympics, she was acquitted by a tribunal of the International Fencing Federation, which allowed her to compete.
In 2009, Richard Gasquet avoided a lengthy doping suspension when the International Tennis Federation (ITF) tribunal panel ruled that he had inadvertently consumed cocaine by kissing a woman in a nightclub.
