Brazilian Pedro Martins Four-Year Ban Dropped to Two After Tainted Supplement Found
Brazilian CrossFit athlete Pedro Martins has had his four-year drug suspension reduced to two. In July, the 32-year old rookie competitor qualified for the 2022 NOBULL CrossFit Games in dramatic fashion via the Copa Sur Semifinal.
However a month later Martins, who put his dream of becoming a medical doctor on hold to compete in CrossFit, took to his Instagram to notify his followers that CrossFit LLC had told him he had tested positive for a banned substance (Clomiphene) and CrossFit later confirmed that he would be receiving a four year suspension.
Remind me: CrossFit has handed down a number of high-profile suspensions this season, including Phil Toon, who was expected to be a potential top ten contender at the CrossFit Games.
Martins explained how his suspension was dropped from four years to two years in a post on Instagram that was translated:
- “Breakthrough! DOPING Hey guys, I got the final answer from CrossFit regarding doping and I’m sharing because I know a lot of people supported me and believed in me. I’m not here to quote any company, I’m just stating the facts.”
- He later told the Morning Chalk Up: “It has been a long process to prove it, so I’m not surprised by the final answer… I went through a very difficult time.”
Martins went on to explain that CrossFit notified he had Clomiphene in his urine and that he subsequently sent all of his supplements for analysis in the United States and in August he received a response that the “pre-training” (read: pre-workout) he took contained Clomiphene, but did not list it on the label, which he said “proved his innocence”.
The suspension reduction was confirmed by CrossFit on their website, stating: “Pedro Martins, the second-place finisher at Copa Sur, submitted a sample that contained clomiphene. He will be sanctioned for two years starting June 12, 2022.”
- “With that in mind, CrossFit has given me minimal punishment,” continued the 32-year-old. “I would like to thank everyone who believed in my innocence from the start.”
- Martins also said he has every intention of continuing to put his medical career on hold to pursue his Games dream. “I will continue training full-time to cover all my shortcomings, improve more and more and be able to represent my country even better from now on. I went through many difficulties in my life from an early age and this is just another adversity that I will go through with a lot of resilience.”
The bottom line: Similar to Larissa Cunha’s situation in 2021, Martins was able to prove that he took contaminated supplements. Cunha and Martins are both Brazilian athletes which raises a question about the integrity of Brazilian supplements more broadly. In a larger sense, the CrossFit community is losing out on some prime years of these Brazilian athlete’s careers due to these tainted supplements. Martin will be 34 when his suspension is over.
Of course, and always, it’s the responsibility of the athlete to know what they are putting into their bodies.
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