In July 2016 the Canadian Centre for Ethics in Sport (CCES) has reported an anti-doping rule violation against the Athlete Shawnacy Barber after his A and B samples tested positive for cocaine.
After notification a provisional suspension was ordered. The Athlete filed a statement in his defence and his was heard for the SDRCC Tribunal.
The Athlete had signed a timely admission of the violation and denied the intentional use of cocaine. He stated that the evening before the competition and the sample collection he had a sexual encounter with a woman in a hotel room. He asserted that the likely source of the presence of cocaine in his system was the kissing that occurred during his sexual encounter.
The woman also testified and confirmed that she had used alcohol and cocaine several times that evening and prior to her sexual encounter.
The Athlete argued that he bears no fault or negligence and he invoked the case of CAS 2009/A/1926 ITF vs Richard Gasquet in which the athlete tested positive for cocaine after he had kissed a woman in a club who had been ingesting cocaine prior to their rendezvous.
The CCES accepted the Athlete’s statement and the scientific evidence presented by the Athlete and that the anti-doping violation was non intentional.
A review and consideration of the evidence presented by the parties in this matter lead the Panel to conclude that the Athlete has satisfied the burden of establishing, on a balance of probability, that he bears no fault or negligence in committing a anti-doping violation. The evidence showed that the Athlete did not know or suspect, and could not have reasonably known or suspected, even with the exercise of utmost caution, that he was at risk of ingesting a prohibited substance by kissing the woman.
The Panel adopts the conclusion in the Gasquet case CAS 2009/A/1926 that the Athlete acted without fault or negligence and decides on 11 August 2016 to eliminate the Athlete’s period of ineligibility. This makes him eligible to compete at the Rio de Janeiro 2016 Olympic Games.
