Foil fencer Ysaora Thibus can claim a title at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, but will she have the opportunity to defend her chances there? It has just been suspended, provisionally, by the French Fencing Federation. The body explains in a press release published Friday February 9 having been informed by the International Control Agency (ITA, International Testing Agency) – mandated by the International Fencing Federation (FIE) to carry out anti-doping controls – that the fencer had « was the subject of January 14 (…) of a control having produced an abnormal analytical result ».
Consequently : “Ysaora Thibus is provisionally suspended with immediate effect from February 8. » The interested party “denies any intentional act of doping”after this check carried out while she was participating in the World Cup stage in Paris, qualifying for the Olympics, where the French team took second place behind Italy, a result which ensured qualification for Les Bleues.
Headliner of the French team
“Contacted by us, the shooter expressed her total incomprehension, her immense surprise and her dismay (…). It is now up to her to defend herself according to the measures she deems useful to take.specifies the federation.
At 32 years old, Ysaora Thibus is one of the great chances of a medal in French fencing under the dome of the Grand Palais in Paris in just under six months for the Olympic Games. Olympic team vice-champion in Tokyo in the summer of 2021, she has collected podiums in major championships since 2012 and her first medal – team silver at the European Championships.
Winner of several World Cup events, she was crowned individual world champion in the summer of 2022 in Cairo, after world silver in 2018 in Wuxi (China) and bronze in 2017 in Leipzig (Germany). For French fencing, this is a massive blow, the athlete being one of its headliners in the discipline for many years.