A tryst with a woman Shawn Barber met on Craigslist led to a positive doping test for cocaine for the Canadian pole vaulter.
The 22-year-old from Toronto tested positive for trace amounts of the drug prior to the Rio Olympics, but the 2015 world champion was permitted to compete in Brazil after it was determined he inadvertently ingested the banned substance.
The Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) decision was released Thursday.
Barber wasn't suspended but was stripped of his 2016 national title.
"This has been a learning experience for Shawn, he is a young athlete learning how to compete on the field of play, and prepare away from it," Athletics Canada said in a statement.
According to the SDRCC report, Barber ingested the cocaine on July 8, the day before he won the Canadian title in Edmonton. He'd posted in the "casual encounter" section of Craigslist for a "professional person" for a sexual encounter as a way to relieve stress on the night before, and specified in the post he wanted a woman who was drug-free and disease-free.
A woman referred to as "W" in the report testified that she consumed cocaine before she met Barber and then again in the bathroom of his hotel room. She said at his hearing that he could not have known she'd used the drug.
The court ruled that Barber, who called the positive test "a complete shock," had unknowingly ingested the drug through kissing.
Barber was scheduled to speak on a conference call later Thursday.
Barber was a strong hope for a medal at the Rio Olympics after winning the 2015 world title in Beijing. But he struggled in the rainy conditions in Rio and finished 10th.
It's been a tough year for the vaulter, whose dad George was banned by Athletics Canada last fall. George Barber had acted as Shawn's coach until Canada's governing body for the sport learned of his 2007 criminal conviction on charges of having sex with a student while employed at a U.S. high school.
