Ysaora Thibus

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.^[2]

Ysaora Thibus
Thibus at the French Fencing Championship 2013
Personal information
Born	(1991-08-22) 22 August 1991 (age 33) Les Abymes, Guadeloupe
Nationality	French
Height	1.74 m (5 ft 9 in)
Weight	56 kg (123 lb)
Sport
Country	France
Weapon	Foil
Club	AS Bourg-la-Reine[1]
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

Career

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.^[3]

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.^[4]

Thibus competed in the 2012 London Olympic Games.^[5] In 2016, after winning her first team bronze medal at the Rio Worlds in April,^[6] 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.^[7]

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,^[8] losing in the final to the Russian team.^[9] Beaten in the second round in individual, she said she was "psychologically exhausted" after the Olympic competition and stopped training for four months.^[10]

In February 2024, Thibus was issued with a provisional suspension after testing positive for ostarine at the Challenge International de Paris event in January.^[11] Following due process, in May 2024 the International Fencing Federation deemed that Thibus bore "no fault or negligence" for the anti-doping rule violation. They accepted her explanation that the source of the ostarine was through kissing her partner Race Imboden whom she was unaware had been using the ostarine.^[12] Therefore, other than disqualification of results from the event in Paris, Thibus received no sanction. An appeal by WADA to the decision was dismissed by the Court of Arbitration for Sport in July 2025.^[12][13]

At the Paris Olympics in 2024, Thinus lost her first match in the women's individual foil and was a member of the French team in the team foil event where they placed fifth.

Personal life

Thibus founded the EssentiElle program for women athletes, which aims to amplify their voices within the world of athletics.^[14]

From around 2021 Thibus was in a long-term relationship and engaged to American foil fencer Race Imboden, however as of 2025 they appear to have split up.^[15][16]

Medal record

Olympic Games

Year	Location	Event	Position
2021	Tokyo, Japan	Team Women's Foil	2nd[17]

World Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2013	Budapest, Hungary	Team Women's Foil	2nd[18]
2014	Kazan, Russia	Team Women's Foil	3rd[19]
2015	Moscow, Russia	Team Women's Foil	3rd[20]
2016	Rio de Janeiro, Brazil	Team Women's Foil	3rd[21]
2017	Leipzig, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[22]
2018	Wuxi, China	Individual Women's Foil	2nd[23]
2018	Wuxi, China	Team Women's Foil	3rd[24]
2022	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Women's Foil	1st[25]

European Championship

Year	Location	Event	Position
2012	Legnano, Italy	Team Women's Foil	2nd[26]
2013	Zagreb, Croatia	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[27]
2013	Zagreb, Croatia	Team Women's Foil	2nd[28]
2014	Strasbourg, France	Team Women's Foil	3rd[29]
2015	Montreux, Switzerland	Team Women's Foil	3rd[30]
2016	Toruń, Poland	Team Women's Foil	3rd[31]
2017	Tbilisi, Georgia	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[32]
2018	Novi Sad, Serbia	Team Women's Foil	3rd[33]
2019	Düsseldorf, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[34]
2019	Düsseldorf, Germany	Team Women's Foil	2nd[35]

Grand Prix

Date	Location	Event	Position
2015-03-13	Havana, Cuba	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[36]
2016-06-03	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[37]
2017-05-19	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[38]
2020-02-07	Turin, Italy	Individual Women's Foil	1st[39]
2021-03-26	Doha, Qatar	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[40]

World Cup

Date	Location	Event	Position
2013-02-08	Budapest, Hungary	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[41]
2013-03-01	St. Petersburg, Russia	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[42]
2014-05-02	Shanghai, China	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[43]
2015-01-16	Gdańsk, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[44]
2015-10-16	Cancún, Mexico	Individual Women's Foil	1st[45]
2017-01-13	Algier, Algeria	Individual Women's Foil	1st[46]
2019-01-25	Saint-Maur-des-Fossés, France	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[47]
2019-05-03	Tauberbischofsheim, Germany	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[48]
2019-11-22	Cairo, Egypt	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[49]
2020-01-10	Katowice, Poland	Individual Women's Foil	3rd[50]

Awards

• Knight of the National Order of Merit (France) on 8 September 2021.^[51]