IOC Were Forced to Reinstate Olympian's Gold Medal Despite Him Smoking Cannabis

The International Olympic Committee (IOC) had to reinstate at Olympic gold medal despite the fact the athlete admitted to smoking Cannabis before competing.

Ever since the IOC creating a Medical Commission back in 1967, there has been a strict outlook on drug use for athletes competing in the Olympic Games.

Once the new Medical Commission was established, it published the first list of prohibited substances before conducting the first Olympic drug testing at the 1968 Winter Olympics in Grenoble.

Testing has since become a key part of every Summer and Winter Olympic Games, with athletes regularly tested to ensure a fair competition for everyone involved.

But there is one athlete who managed to compete and win a gold medal, despite having Cannabis in his system during the Games.

The first drug testing took place in the 1968 Winter Olympics. (Image: Fabrice COFFRINI / AFP via Getty Images)

Back in the 1998 Winter Olympics, Canada's Ross Rebagliati became the first gold medalist in the men's giant slalom event as Snowboarding was introduced to the Winter Olympic Games.

However, it was later revealed that a drug test sample that he submitted showed 17.8 ng/mL of THC metabolites, just slightly higher than the 15 ng/mL limit imposed by the International Ski Federation.

The IOC executive board held a meeting shortly after in which they voted 3–2 to disqualify him from competition, therefore stripping him of his gold medal.

Rebagliati later admitted that he had previously smoked cannabis but had stopped months before competing at the Olympics and claimed the failed test was instead due to secondhand exposure.

After the Canadian Olympic Association appealed the decision, a court ruled in the snowboarder's favour just two days later, restoring his gold medal.

The court ruled that, as cannabis had not been officially banned by the IOC at the time, it had no authority to strip the medal.

Ross Rebagliati was the first gold medallist in the snowboarding men's giant slalom event. (Image: TAO-CHUAN YEH/AFP via Getty Images)

However, the ordeal still had a massive impact on Rebagliati as he later revealed it completely ruined his reputation.

"Cannabis back then was seen as being for losers,” Rebagliati told the New York Times in 2018.

“The big corporate sponsors didn’t want to sponsor me.”

Instead, he added, “I became a source of entertainment, a joke.”

But it wasn't all bad news as after his retirement from snowboarding, Rebagliati has gone on to become an entrepreneur in the cannabis industry.