Shawn Barber tested positive for cocaine before Rio Olympics

 https://www.thestar.com/sports/amateur/2016/10/06/shawn-barber-tested-positive-for-cocaine-before-rio-olympics.html

World champion pole vaulter allowed to compete after ruling determined that he inadvertently ingested banned substance during a tryst with a woman.

Shawn Barber waves to the crowd after being eliminated at 5.65 metres in the men's pole vault final during the athletics competition at the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, Monday, August 15, 2016.  (FRANK GUNN / THE CANADIAN PRESS FILE PHOTO)  

By KERRY GILLESPIESports reporter

Thu., Oct. 6, 2016

World champion pole vaulter Shawn Barber tested positive for cocaine just weeks ahead of the Rio Olympics.

He was allowed to compete because his sport court hearing determined that he inadvertently ingested the banned substance during a tryst with a woman he found on Craigslist in Edmonton the night before he competed at the Canadian Olympic trials.

The Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada decision was released today.

Barber was one of Canada’s strongest medal hopes heading into the Rio Olympics.

He was the reigning world champion but he barely made it through the qualifying rounds and jumped poorly in the final to finish 10th.

He tested positive for a trace amount of cocaine, which the court determined came from kissing the woman who, unbeknownst to him, had taken cocaine just before meeting him in a hotel room for their pre-arranged hookup. 

The Canadian Centre of Ethics in Sport, which operates national anti-doping programs, proposed a four-year ban for Barber, since cocaine is a banned substance under the World Anti-Doping Code.

It wasn’t until Aug. 11 — just two days before his Olympic competition began — that the hearing decision cleared him to compete.

He received no suspension but he was stripped of his 2016 Canadian pole vault title for having the a banned substance in his body, no matter how it got there.