Yesterday, I reported that Alex Gazan admitted to using a gummy with 2mg of THC on Saturday night of the World Fitness Project Tour Stop 1. After researching the WFP rulebook and drug testing policy, it appeared that Gazan was in jeopardy of violating that policy if her drug test at the end of the competition came back above the allowed threshold.
Following that article, Will Moorad and the WFP issued a statement yesterday evening to address the situation. In the statement Moorad said, “WFP made the decision to omit cannabis from our list of banned substances in March, prior to Tour Stop 1.”
You can read the entire press release below.
But while Moorad claims the WFP removed cannabis from the list of banned substances in March, the official WFP rulebook and Drug Policy did not reflect this until yesterday afternoon.
And, as Jenny from Dense Updates, confirmed, the updated Drug Policy was not updated until yesterday. Watch below…
Additionally, athletes were not informed of this change either. Alex Gazan confirmed that she did not know of the change to the drug policy until Moorad told her it had been “nixed” after she expressed concern that she took a banned substance.
Furthermore, I have spoken to another signed Pro athlete and a Challenger athlete. Both of which said the policy change was never communicated to them.
A side-by-side comparison of the original Drug Policy next to the newly published version can be seen here:
The new policy also removed a table that listed examples of banned substances. The table below was in the original drug policy that was available to the public until yesterday afternoon. This is no longer in the currently available WFP Drug Policy document.
After the press release was published, I reached out to the WFP Media team for clarification on the timing of rulebook updates and notifications to the athletes. My request for comment has not yet been returned.
And, if you want to understand why I think this story is worth talking about, I went live yesterday afternoon. Note, this was before the WFP put out its statement and updated its Drug Policy.
So based on the update to WFP’s Drug Testing Policy, athletes are permitted to use THC during competition. However, cannabinoids (THC) are still prohibited from being used while in-competition of a CrossFit Games sanctioned event.
