CrossFit Games athlete Katie Trombetta shared on her Instagram page that she has tested positive for banned substances from a sample that was taken at the 2019 Reebok CrossFit Games. She has received a 4-year ban from competing at the Games.
Trombetta made her first appearance at the Reebok CrossFit Games this past August, and ended up finishing 44th overall. Prior to this year’s event she had been competing in the CrossFit Open since 2014.
The rookie wrote a long Instagram caption about the suspension. The bolding in her quotes was added by BarBend.
At the end of August I got notification that I failed my drug test at the CrossFit Games. They found metabolites of GW1516 and Ostarine in my sample. The email was sent to my old email that I rarely check, and I missed the 72 hour deadline to dispute CrossFit’s findings. When I finally saw the email in September, I asked for an extension, and it was denied. I got one phone call to notify me of the results, and was coaching when it came through, didn’t recognize the number, so didn’t think anything of it.
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Trombetta strongly denied knowingly taking banned substances, but accepted responsibility for her sample:
I did not knowingly take these compounds they found in my system. GW1516 and Ostarine are two of the most common substances found in contaminated supplements. If you don’t know anything about the supplement industry, it’s very loosely regulated, and ⅓ to ½ of all supplements have something in them that isn’t listed on the label. I admit I was not as careful as I could have been leading up to the Games. I used other people’s pre-workouts, protein, creatine, and I take over the counter melatonin, calcium, and vitamin C. Anything I was taking could have had these compounds present.
She does not plan to compete after the ban is lifted, saying she’s “too impatient and too angry” to wait out the ban.
Trombetta has been active in the comments section below her post and has responded that she isn’t blaming CrossFit, but she’s unhappy with how her ban was handled and implemented.
(J)ust wish they had more timely and consistent communication throughout the process. I take responsibility for not being careful, and I’m taking my ban without argument, although it does sadden me.
(…)
I am angry for all of the CrossFit athletes who have been banned in previous years without the opportunity or means to defend themselves.
(…)
They have the same WADA tests as most other professional sports, but the penalties are ten times the length of many. Other sports also have a minimum requirement of a substance in your system, so if they find more than that, they ban you. If they find less than that, they write it off because there is no chance it’s helping you athletically and most likely due to contamination. I’m in the process of trying to obtain my lab results from the lab since CrossFit won’t give them to me. Even though one would assume this is a medical record and I’m entitled to see it.
(…)
If you get caught with Ostarine in the NFL, you get banned for a couple games. Some sports it’s 6 months to 2 years, and CrossFit has a zero tolerance rule that other sports do not have. If there’s a millionth of a nano gram in your system you’re punished the same as if you were in the middle of a cycle.
[The Ultimate Schedule and Guide for the 2019-2020 CrossFit Games Season]
As of now we have not seen an official release from CrossFit HQ addressing Trombetta’s case. This news comes just a couple of days before a new CrossFit Games season gets underway; the 2020 CrossFit Open kicks off on Thursday, October 10th.
Trombetta, meanwhile, says that she’s transitioning into Olympic weightlifting, which she says she has always loved more than CrossFit and is “way better at.”
“The worst part so far is that I don’t get to eat as much food.”
Featured image from @kt_trombetta’s Instagram page.
