LONDON — In a surprising turn of events, a professional tennis player has been handed a four-year suspension by the International Tennis Integrity Agency after attributing a positive methamphetamine drug test to a kiss.
Goncalo Oliveira, who proudly represents Venezuela, was provisionally banned back in January after a positive test emerged from the ATP Challenger event in Manzanillo, Mexico, in November 2024. Both his A and B samples unveiled the presence of the banned substance.
Despite firmly denying any intentional drug use, Oliveira’s defense at the independent tribunal failed to convince the judges, who ruled that he did not adequately demonstrate the presence of the substance was accidental.
Oliveria will receive credit for the duration of his provisional suspension, allowing him to resume professional play on January 16, 2029.
Previously, Oliveira achieved a personal best doubles ranking of 77th worldwide in August 2020.
This incident isn’t the first involving athletes linking positive drug tests to kissing.
In July, French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was exonerated by the Court of Arbitration, having been found contaminated with the anabolic substance Ostarine after kissing her American partner over a span of nine days. She received clearance from an International Fencing Federation tribunal shortly before the Paris Olympics, enabling her participation in the games.
Back in 2009, Richard Gasquet narrowly escaped a lengthy doping suspension after the International Tennis Federation tribunal accepted his claim that he ingested cocaine from a kiss with a woman in a nightclub.
