Ysaora Thibus

Ysaora Thibus
Thibus at the French Fencing Championship 2013
Personal information
Born	(1991-08-22) 22 August 1991 Les Abymes, Guadeloupe
Nationality	French
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	56 kg (123 lb)
Sport
Country	France
Sport	Fencing
Weapon	Foil
Club	AS Bourg-la-Reine
FIE ranking	current ranking
Medal record Women's foil Representing France Olympic Games 2020 Tokyo Team World Championships 2022 Cairo Individual 2013 Budapest Team 2018 Wuxi Individual 2023 Milan Team 2014 Kazan Team 2015 Moscow Team 2016 Rio de Janeiro Team 2017 Leipzig Individual 2018 Wuxi Team 2022 Cairo Team European Games 2023 Kraków–Małopolska Team European Championships 2012 Legnano Team 2013 Zagreb Team 2019 Düsseldorf Team 2022 Antalya Team 2023 Kraków Team 2013 Zagreb Individual 2014 Strasbourg Team 2015 Montreux Team 2016 Torún Team 2017 Tbilisi Individual 2018 Novi Sad Team 2019 Düsseldorf Individual 2022 Antalya Individual Universiade 2011 Shenzhen Team

Ysaora Jennifer Thibus (born 22 August 1991) is a French right-handed foil fencer, 2022 individual world champion, three-time Olympian, and 2020 team Olympic silver medalist.

Biography

Ysaora Thibus is studying at the ESCP Business School. In 2013, she received the Bernard Destremau Prize from the Académie des Sciences Morales et Politiques, which rewards a high-level athlete who combines competition and higher education.

Thibus took up fencing at the age of 7 in Guadeloupe. At 17, she moved to France to train with the French national youth team in Aix-en-Provence, joining the senior training team in Paris a year later.

Thibus competed in the 2012 London Olympic Games. In 2016, after winning her first team bronze medal at the Rio Worlds in April, she participated in the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games.

She reached her first individual world podium in 2017 in Leipzig with a third place, then in 2018 in Wuxi where she lost 12–15 in the final to Alice Volpi.

In 2021, she won a silver medal in the team foil event with Anita Blaze, Astrid Guyart and Pauline Ranvier at the Tokyo Olympic Games, losing in the final to the Russian team. Beaten in the second round in individual, she said she was "psychologically exhausted" after the Olympic competition and stopped training for four months.

Thibus founded the EssentiElle program for women athletes, which aims to amplify their voices within the world of athletics.

Thibus and American foil fencer Race Imboden met at a party after the Rio de Janeiro Olympic Games and began dating shortly afterward. The couple became engaged at Le Pigalle, a hotel in Paris, after the Tokyo Olympic Games.

Thibus was suspended on February 8, 2024, after testing positive for ostarine, a banned substance. She said that her positive doping test was due to "sexual contact" with her fiancé, former Olympic fencer Race Imboden. She appealed her suspension by asserting she was unknowingly contaminated through an exchange of "bodily fluids". On May 21, 2024, she sent out the news that she was cleared from doping charges and was back on track towards competing in the Paris Olympic Games. On August 2024, she competed in the women's individual foil and the team foil events during the Paris Olympics.

Medal record

Olympic Games

Year	Location	Event	Position
2021	Tokyo, Japan	Team Women's Foil	2nd

World Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2013	Budapest, Hungary	Team Women's Foil	2nd
2014	Kazan, Russia	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2015	Moscow, Russia	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2016	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2017	Leipzig, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2018	Wuxi, China	Individual Women's Foil	2nd
2018	Wuxi, China	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2022	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Women's Foil	1st

European Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2012	Legnano, Italy	Team Women's Foil	2nd
2013	Zagreb, Croatia	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2013	Zagreb, Croatia	Team Women's Foil	2nd
2014	Strasbourg, France	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2015	Montreux, Switzerland	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2016	Toruń, Poland	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2017	Tbilisi, Georgia	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2018	Novi Sad, Serbia	Team Women's Foil	3rd
2019	Düsseldorf, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2019	Düsseldorf, Germany	Team Women's Foil	2nd

Grand Prix

Date	Location	Event	Position
2015-03-13	Havana, Cuba	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2016-06-03	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2017-05-19	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2020-02-07	Turin, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2021-03-26	Doha, Qatar	Individual Women's Foil	3rd

World Cup

Date	Location	Event	Position
2013-02-08	Budapest, Hungary	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2013-03-01	St. Petersburg, Russia	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2014-05-02	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2015-01-16	Gdańsk, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2015-10-16	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2017-01-13	Algier, Algeria	Individual Women's Foil	1st
2019-01-25	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2019-05-03	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2019-11-22	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Women's Foil	3rd
2020-01-10	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd

Awards

• Knight of the National Order of Merit (France) on 8 September 2021.

External links

• Ysaora Thibus at the International Fencing Federation
• Ysaora Thibus at the European Fencing Confederation
• Ysaora Thibus at Olympics.com
• Ysaora Thibus at Olympedia
• Ysaora Thibus at the French Olympic and Sports Committee (archived) (in French)