French Fencer Successfully Uses ‘Kissing Defense’ To Avoid Lengthy Doping Ban

Fencer Ysaora Thibus Many athletes who’ve failed a test for performance-enhancing drugs have trotted out some pretty dubious excuses to explain that development. That includes Ysaora Thibus, a French fencer who was apparently telling the truth after blaming kissing for a doping violation that threatened to derail her career. It’s been close to a century since the International Amateur Athletic Federation (now known as “World Athletics”) became the first governing body to officially outlaw the use of performance-enhancing substances when it banned track-and-field athletes from harnessing stimul