Olympian Shawn Barber tests positive for cocaine after Craigslist date
Canadian Olympian Shawn Barber tested positive for cocaine after kissing a woman that he met on Craigslist, according to The Star.com of Canada.
Athletics Canada, the Canadian track and field governing body, confirmed the positive test.
Barber, 22, won gold in the pole vault at the 2015 world championships. The positive test came weeks before the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro as Barber met with the woman in Edmonton just one night before competing at the Canadian national championships.
The Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada ruled that he was eligible to compete, as he inadvertently ingested the banned substance.
Barber met the woman when he posted in the “casual encounter” section of Craigslist for a “professional person.” The woman testified that she used cocaine before meeting Barber and while in the bathroom of his hotel room. She said that he may not have known that she used the drug.
He was not suspended but was stripped of his national title.
Barber finished 10th in the pole vault final in Rio.
