Tennis player who said a kiss caused his positive methamphetamine test gets huge ban
A professional tennis player who said a kiss caused a positive methamphetamine drug test was suspended for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency.
Goncalo Oliveira, 30, who represents Venezuela, was provisionally suspended in January following a positive test in November 2024 while competing at the ATP Challenger event in Manzanillo, Mexico. Both his A and B samples contained the banned substance.
The Portuguese-born player denied taking the drug and made his argument at a hearing with an independent tribunal, which decided Oliveira couldn’t prove the drug’s presence was unintentional.
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Oliveria receives credit for time served from his provisional suspension, meaning he will be eligible to compete professionally again on January 16, 2029.
Oliveria reached a career-high world doubles ranking of 77th in August 2020.
This is not the first time an athlete has said a positive drug test happened because of kissing.
Goncalo Oliveira playing in 2019. Getty
French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was cleared in July by the Court of Arbitration of a doping allegation after judges accepted she was contaminated with the anabolic substance Ostarine in 2024 by kissing her American partner over a period of nine days.
She was later cleared by an International Fencing Federation tribunal weeks before the Paris Olympics, which let her compete there.
In 2009, Richard Gasquet escaped a lengthy doping ban when the International Tennis Federation’s tribunal panel ruled that he inadvertently took cocaine by kissing a woman in a nightclub.
