Angelique Connoway, member of CrossFit FBDV Mayhem Africa, has withdrawn her appeal following a failed drug test at the Africa Semifinal. Connoway and her team won the African Semifinal and were slated to compete at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games. However, that will no longer happen as CrossFit has formally invited the 2nd place team, Cape CrossFit Wolfpack to compete at the Games and represent the African region.
If you haven’t been following the story, Connoway’s teammate and former individual CrossFit Games veteran, Michelle Merand, shared on Instagram that a team member had been told they failed a drug test. Merand said at the time that an appeal was underway.
Then earlier this week, CrossFit confirmed that the team member was Angelique Connoway and that her sample contained metabolites of GW501516. CrossFit also stated that an appeal had been filed.
Since then, however, we learned that Cape CrossFit Wolfpack had received an invite to compete at the CrossFit Games. However, CrossFit had not yet made an official statement regarding Connoway’s appeal.
This morning, The Barbell Spin received the statement from CrossFit:
“CrossFit announced the failed drug test on Friday, June 16. The athlete referenced, Angelique Connoway, alerted us that she had initiated the appeal process upon learning of the positive result.
“On Sunday, June 18, we received an email from Connoway explaining that she made the decision to withdraw her appeal. Upon receiving written communication of the appeal withdrawal, we considered the case closed and made the decision to invite second-place finishing team Cape CrossFit Wolfpack to compete in the CrossFit Games. The team has accepted its invitation.”
Earlier today, Connoway took to Instagram to add some details surrounding her situation. In her post Connoway said it would cost close to $100,000 rand (approximately $5,500 in US dollars) to hire a lawyer and to test all of her supplements. She added that she is not in a financial position to incur these costs and has decided to withdraw her appeal and accept the sanction CrossFit will hand out. She concluded by saying she is “getting punished for something I know I didn’t do.”
While CrossFit has not officially announced a formal sanction for Connoway, we expect that she will receive a 4-year sanction from CrossFit competitions, in line with previous failed drug tests.
With that, CrossFit FBDV Mayhem Africa will not be able to compete at the 2023 NOBULL CrossFit Games. Her teammates will, however, will not receive any sanctions and are able to compete in the 2024 season.
