Stories

Ricky Garard Gets Popped, Banned from CrossFit 4 Years

October 3, 2017 by
Photo courtesy of CrossFit Inc.
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WHAT HAPPENED?

The rookie phenom and Third Fittest Man on Earth, Ricky Garard got popped for using two performance enhancing drugs — testolone, and a beta-2 agonist (AKA endurobol).

WHAT DOES THIS MEAN?

Ricky’s 2017 performance at all levels of competition (Open, Regionals and Games) will be stripped from the leaderboard, his bronze medal will be going to Patrick Vellner and his invitation to the CrossFit Invitational revoked. James Newbury will likely take that fourth spot on the Pacific team.

He’s also banned from competing in any CrossFit sanctioned event through the 2021 season and has to return the $76,000 he took home from the CrossFit Games.

WHY’D IT TAKE SO LONG?

One word: appeal.

All podium finishers at both the CrossFit Games and Regionals must submit to immediate drug testing. Remember back in late July when HQ announced that two team athletes and one individual failed their drug tests? Those athletes were caught during screening at Regionals.

So after HQ tested Ricky Garard and discovered two illegal substances in his sample, further testing was required and the lengthy back-and-forth between Ricky and Co. and CrossFit HQ started.

All of that concluded today when the evidence clearly showed Ricky used banned substances.

ANYONE ELSE?

Masters 55-59 athlete Tony Turski who finished second in the Masters 55-59 division and Josée Sarda, who won the 50-54 division tested positive for selective androgen receptor modulators (SARMs), ostarine and testolone.

Still think HQ is lax on testing? This brings the 2017 total to 11 Games athletes across all divisions who failed drug tests and were disqualified.

Here’s a piece of advice from CrossFit Games GM Justin Bergh: “Any athlete who uses performance-enhancing drugs is directly attacking his fellow competitors, our community and our sport. It is our responsibility, along with athletes themselves, to identify those threats and remove them. All athletes can be confident that CrossFit will aggressively pursue and punish anyone who attempts to use drugs to gain an advantage in competition.”

Translation: you can run but you can’t hide.

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