On Friday, Venezuelan professional tennis player Gonzalo Oliveira tested positive for methamphetamine and was suspended for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency, the agency confirmed in a statement. The 30-year-old Portuguese-born athlete claimed the positive test came from a kiss, but an independent tribunal rejected his explanation.
Oliveira was provisionally suspended in January after in-competition testing at the ATP Challenger Tournament in Manzanillo, Mexico in November 2024 found banned stimulants in both A and B samples. Methamphetamine is classified as a non-specified substance under the World Anti-Doping Agency’s Prohibited List, and a positive test results in a mandatory suspension.
Oliveira’s four-year suspension covers the period he was already under interim suspension and will last until January 16, 2029. Oliveira was stripped of prize money, grades and ranking points from the tournament in which he tested positive and subsequent tournaments prior to his provisional suspension.
Olympic fencer Isaola Tibas’ doping ban lifted after court finds accidental contamination through kissing
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The court considered Oliveira’s argument that the substance entered his body unintentionally through kissing or environmental contamination. The committee concluded that he failed to provide “clear, convincing or concrete evidence” to support either scenario.
Oliveira, who reached a career-high ranking of 77th in doubles in 2020, will be prohibited from competing, coaching or participating in sanctioned tennis events during the period of his suspension.
Although unusual, Oliveira’s case is part of a rare group of doping cases involving intimate contact. In 2009, French tennis player Richard Gasquet was spared a suspension after he tested positive for cocaine after kissing a woman in a nightclub.
Recently, French Olympic fencer Isaola Tibas He was discharged from the hospital after testing positive for ostarine.The Court of Arbitration for Sport ruled that the contamination occurred during a nine-day kiss with his then-partner, American fencer Race Imboden, when he took the drug. The tribunal concluded that prolonged close contact could have been the cause of the positive test, and Tibas was able to compete in the Paris Olympics, finishing 28th in the individual foil and fifth on the French team.
