LONDON — A professional tennis player who said a kiss caused a positive drug test for methamphetamine was suspended for four years by the International Tennis Integrity Agency on Friday.
Goncalo Oliveira, who represents Venezuela, was provisionally suspended in January after testing positive in November 2024 while participating in 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 during a hearing before an independent tribunal, which decided Oliveira could not prove the drug’s presence was unintentional.
Oliveria will receive credit for time served from his provisional suspension, meaning he will be eligible to compete again professionally on January 16, 2029.
Oliveria reached a career-high world doubles ranking of 77th in August 2020.
This isn’t the first time an athlete has said a positive drug test happened because of kissing.
French Olympic fencer Ysaora Thibus was cleared of a doping charge by the Court of Arbitration in July after judges accepted she was infected with the anabolic substance Ostarine in 2024 by kissing her American partner over a nine-day period. She was later acquitted by an International Fencing Federation tribunal weeks before the Paris Olympics, allowing her to compete there.
In 2009, Richard Gasquet escaped a lengthy doping ban when the International Tennis Federation tribunal ruled that he had accidentally used cocaine by kissing a woman in a nightclub.
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