The world champion pole vaulter Shawn Barber was allowed to compete at the Rio Olympics despite testing positive for cocaine he inadvertently ingested during an encounter with a woman he met on the personals site Craigslist.
The 22-year-old went into the Games as one of the favourites to win gold but ended a disappointing 10th after only just qualifying for the final.
But Barber was allowed to compete in Brazil only after the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada cleared him of the failed test, details of which were released on Thursday.
“On or about July 8, 2016, the day before he was to compete at the Canadian Championships and Rio selection trials in Edmonton, Alberta, Mr. Barber posted in the “casual encounter” section of Craigslist, an on-line service. He used a pseudonym,” read the report.
“He specified in his post that he wanted to meet a woman who was drug-free and disease-free. He also indicated that he wanted a ‘professional’ person. Mr. Barber testified that the purpose of his post was to ‘find a partner for the week or weekend’ as ‘a way to relieve stress’. He acknowledged under cross-examination that his purpose was to have a ‘sexual encounter of some sort’ if all went well. He stayed away from bars and clubs because of their association with drugs and alcohol.”
After rejecting “a couple of untrustworthy replies”, Barber arranged to meet a mother of two – referred to as ‘W’ in the report – and another man in a hotel room. She testified to taking cocaine on the way there before having sex with Barber. “He was unaware that W had snorted cocaine,” the report added.
“His evidence was that he didn’t realise there was any potential to ingest drugs by kissing W. He added that he relied upon his judgment in meeting her and chatting in determining that she was drug-free. It turned out that he was wrong. It was the first time that he’d done such a thing.”
The next day, Barber was selected for a doping control after competing at the Canadian championships. Testers found the presence of cocaine metabolite benzoylecgonine.
The Canadian Centre of Ethics in Sport, which operates national anti-doping programmes, proposed a four-year ban for Barber. But he was cleared to compete by the investigation on 11 August – two days before the competition was due to start.
He received no suspension but he was stripped of his 2016 Canadian pole vault title for having the a banned substance in his body.