In the last period, CrossFit® has announced a list of athletes tested positive for doping after official competitions; all had earned a spot at last season's CrossFit® Games in Madison in individual or team competition: Nasser Alruwayeh, Nycolas Joyal, Sabrina Dellagiustina, Phil Toon and Pedro Martins.
Some of them had used GW501516 or, as it is colloquially called, cardarine or endurabol; but what is this substance and what effects does it have on the body of an athlete?
Let's find out together!
What is Cardarine?
Cardarine or endurabol is a chemical substance developed in the 90s to prevent and treat the formation of colon, prostate and breast cancers.
Some studies conducted in the early 2000s found that the cardarine and other PPAR antagonists are able to block metabolic disorders such as obesity and diabetes through the expression of specific genes.
It has also been shown that this substance is able to burn excess adipose tissue, improve the recovery and significantly increase endurance.
Negative effects
What negative effects can cardarine have on an athlete's body? As with all things that seem great at first, all that glitters is not gold; in 2007 several studies of cardarine were halted because animal tests showed that the use of this substance caused the rapid development of cancer in various organs.
The World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) has developed a test for cardarine and related substances, adding them tolist of banned substances in 2009 and launched several warnings about the dangers of GW501516.
Athletes sanctioned for using cardarine
Which athletes have tested positive for the use of cardarine? Well the number of athletes recently "caught" is not small, quite the contrary.
We have to go back to 2017, whenor Australian Ricky Garard, who placed third at his first CrossFit® Games, tested positive to traces of this substance and to another SARMS (Selective Androgen Receptor Modulator), the Ostarine.
Garard lost his bronze medal, after finishing third to Mat Fraser and Ben Fikowski, and had to return his $80.000 prize.
To make matters worse, he was banned for 4 years and the sponsors and all the other athletes turned their backs on him.
2018, then, was the year in which the highest number of athletes tested positive for prohibited substances; as for cardarine, 5 athletes were sanctioned:
- Nuha Almarri,
- Joel Munro,
- Kelli Holm,
- Shawn Ramirez E
- Fabio Botteghi.
All of them received a 4-year fine, without the ability to compete for any CrossFit® event. 2019 was no less, unfortunately:
- Lauren Herrera,
- Ben Garard (brother of Ricky Garard),
- Mauro Acevedo,
- Haylie Thompson,
- Achilleas Pantazis,
- Katie Trombetta and
- Robbie Perovich was banned for 4 years for abusing cardarine.
In 2020, on the other hand, no cardarine positive athletes were caught, but in 2021 the American athlete Deshawn Smith, who finished second during the West Coast Classic with the Invictus Unconquerable, was sanctioned because traces of cardarine were found in his anti-doping tests and the team was disqualified.
His compatriots, Ashley Flaser and Ray Flaser, both part of the Ocean State team, were also banned from competition for 4 years for using SARMS.