Portuguese Surfer Vasco Ribeiro Banned From Competition for 3 Years After Refusing Drug

On the evening of April 17, 2022, a doping control officer showed up unannounced at the home of Vasco Ribeiro – one of Portugal’s top surfers – to collect a urine sample. Ribeiro had been randomly selected as part of the International Surfing Association’s (ISA) “out-of-competition” anti-doping program. Ribeiro refused to take the test, which, as per the ISA’s anti-doping rules (section 2.3), carries a maximum penalty of a four-year ban. Ribeiro was ultimately handed a three-year sanction by the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) that would bar him from surfing competitions and disqualify all his results since the refusal. 

Ribeiro appealed the decision made in 2023, but in June of 2024, CAS confirmed Ribeiro’s penalty. The three-year sanction will retroactively start from July 13, 2023, the date the first ruling was made, and will include both ISA and WSL events. All results obtained by Ribeiro in surfing competitions since April 17, 2022, the date he refused to take the test, will be disqualified.

The defense used by Ribeiro and his legal representation was unprecedented, at least in the world of surfing. Ribeiro claimed that he had been going through a rough patch with his girlfriend and was invited to go out partying with other surfers on the night of April 16, 2022 where he was offered alcohol, marijuana, and cocaine. (Marijuana and cocaine are both prohibited substances according to the World Anti-Doping Agency.) The pre-existing stress, exacerbated by the use of the substances, caused anxiety and inhibited Ribeiro’s decision making when he was surprised by the visit of the doping control officer, they argued. They also asserted that Ribeiro was not educated on the extent of the potential consequences of refusing to give the sample and he was given poor advice by his coach to not take the test.

Ribeiro is quoted in the court documents as stating, “I was scared because I did cocaine and would test positive.” In the documents Ribeiro also acknowledged that he sought and received treatment for his cocaine use in September of 2022.

What Ribeiro didn’t know is that refusing to submit a sample is much worse than testing positive for cocaine and/or marijuana outside of a competition. According to section 10.2.4.1 of the ISA’s anti-doping code, “If the athlete can establish that any ingestion or use occurred out-of-competition and was unrelated to sport performance, then the period of ineligibility shall be three months.” Thus, if Ribeiro had submitted the sample and tested positive, the penalty could have been three months instead of three years, or potentially just one month if coupled with counseling.

While there are a few points of disagreement between the parties as far as the sequence of events that evening, according to the court documents, the doping control officer, Mario Simoes, arrived at the residence of Ribeiro at 9 p.m. on April 17, 2022. Simoes works for a sample collection company that was contracted by the ISA to test Ribeiro. Over the next 33 minutes an exchange occurred between Simoes, Ribeiro, and Ribeiro’s mother as the athlete briefly appeared at the house’s gate and then returned to the house. Ultimately, it was Ribeiro’s mother who gave the final word that Ribeiro would not be coming out of the house again to submit the sample.

During this window of time, Ribeiro says he called his coach for assistance, knowing he had ingested prohibited substances the previous night, which is when he received advice to refuse to take the test. According to Simoes’ report, Ribeiro tried to persuade Simoes to file the case as an “unsuccessful attempt” instead of a “refusal,” but Simoes insisted that was not possible. Simoes, who repeatedly reminded Ribeiro and his mother that there are grave consequences for not submitting a sample, tried to call Ribeiro, but was unsuccessful. At 9:33 p.m. Simoes left the residence and filed the case as a refusal to submit the sample. 

CAS, for the most part, did not buy the defense. They concluded that the evidence did not suggest that Ribeiro was in a state of extreme anxiety when he refused to give the sample, the athlete was properly warned by the doping control officer that there would be severe consequences for not submitting the sample, the doping control officer was not required to detail the specifics of potential consequences, and poor advice given by Ribeiro’s coach is not justification for refusal. However, the court did somewhat acknowledge Ribeiro’s lack of education on the process and consequences by reducing the maximum four-year penalty to three years.

When The Inertia reached Ribeiro via text message he opted not to comment further on the case.

The ISA’s anti-doping program tests the top three medalists in each of their championship events (excluding the U-16 athletes in the junior championships), as well as conducting three random tests during each event. The ISA also tests athletes “out-of-competition,” which all national federations are subject to. Athletes are entered into a database, where they provide their location in case they need to be tested. 

On January 24, 2022, Ribeiro was notified that he was included in the “registered testing pool” to be subject to such testing. Four days later, on January 28, 2022, Ribeiro returned a signed form that acknowledged he was aware of his inclusion in the pool. Thus, while the chances of getting selected were very small, Ribeiro knew it was a possibility. In fact, it’s because of Ribeiro’s registration in the pool that the doping control officer had his address and phone number on file to request the sample.

Ribeiro had been a staple on Portugal’s national surfing team from 2018-2021. He narrowly missed out on qualifying for the Tokyo 2020 Olympics when he placed equal 11th at the 2021 ISA World Surfing Games in El Salvador. Had he finished one place higher, in 9th, he would have likely qualified. (He lost his last heat by just 0.63 points.) However, Ribeiro was oddly absent from the Olympic qualifiers in 2022, 2023, and 2024, likely due to the legal proceedings surrounding his case.