CrossFit: Ricky Garard becomes sport’s villain as Dubai CrossFit Championship extends invite
- The 27-year-old is set to return from a four-year suspension for doping and already looks to factor into the 2022 CrossFit Games
- Garard gives CrossFit a legitimate villain and if he continues to play the part, could help expand the sport through a juicy narrative of whether or not he is redeemable
Ricky Garard, who finished third, is chronicled heavily throughout the piece. Garard famously tested positive for testolone and endurobol, both banned substances. He was hit with a four-year ban, meaning he could not compete in any CrossFit-sanctioned event until October of this year.
Heber Cannon, at one point in the documentary, flat out asks Garard about the elephant in the room, and Garard’s stuttering, hollowed-eyed response is classic.
“Do you think there are steroids in our sport? Yeah, I can, definite.”
Garard’s grammatically unsound, fragmented answer is not the only gem we get through the movie as Cannon and fellow filmmaker Marston Sawyers ask multiple athletes and press Garard at a number of moments, seemingly in the knowledge that he was doping.
Garard, who hails from Australia, instantly became CrossFit’s first high-profile villain, not only for being the first podium finisher to test positive at the CrossFit Games, but also robbing fan favourite, Canadian Patrick Vellner, of the glory of coming third and standing on the boxes with fellow Canadian Brent Fikowski, and of course, now retired five-time champion Mat Fraser.
CrossFit fans across the world were seething, and Garard’s Instagram response only added fuel to the fire, as he stated he “was willing to dabble into ways that could improve my performance legally and within the rules, with no intention whatsoever to be a cheat. I thought I was legitimately competing within the rules with no unfair advantage over others.”
Turns out, Garard’s research failed him, as he put it, and the 23 year-old tested positive. Garard lost his US$76,000 winnings, but Vellner’s heartbreaking response capped it all off.
“Last night I was named the Third Fittest Man on Earth for the second consecutive year. Not to cheers of the CrossFit community, or to the joy of my family, but alone at home, sitting at my kitchen table doing homework.”
After a while, it became clear Garard was starting to get comfortable in his villainous attire, as in 2020, he trash talked with Fraser, asking him not to retire, calling him an expletive. He also posted his unofficial times for the 2020 CrossFit Games first stage, which took place online, contesting that he would have come fifth.
In May of this year, Fraser addressed Garard for the first time on a podcast, stating:
“If he had come out and been like, ‘I made a mistake, my apologies’, that would be one thing. He literally told me, ‘I know you’re doping. Don’t worry, I won’t tell.’ And I was like, ‘What are you talking about? No.’ And he was like, ‘I know you are’.
Fraser said this was further compounded by a call he got from a CrossFit employee.
“Ricky called HQ (headquarters) and tried to snitch on me. He called them and was like, ‘I have cement proof’, and they were like, ‘OK’ and he had nothing. I found that out through the grapevine after the fact.”
The fact that Garard’s older brother Ben has also tested positive for drugs in 2019, and was given a four-year ban is one thing, but the added fact that it was for one of the same substances – endurobol – is another face palm for this story.
Now Garard is back, has served his suspension, and has been given an invite to the Dubai CrossFit Championship, which will be returning after its Covid-19 hiatus in December with 19 other athletes who have been hand-picked.
First off, you have to give credit to the organisers of the Dubai event for this beautiful marketing strategy. Garard will surely drive interest as he finally competes against some of the best in a live competition. Will other competitors shake his hand after events? Will he get the cold shoulder at the athlete’s tent? Will fans ask for autographs, or will they heckle him from the stands?
Doesn’t really matter, because at 27 – and by the looks of his Instagram, Garard is in peak shape – he will instantly become a contender at the 2022 CrossFit Games. Before he was banned, he was crowned the fittest man in Australia, and you can bet one thing: this man will be hungry, feasting on the fuel of becoming the sport’s first villain after stewing on the back burner for four years.
Now CrossFit has a bona fide villain, and it may want to lean into Garard like Dubai’s organisers are doing. Every sport has that guy you love to hate, and figures like mixed martial arts superstar Conor McGregor and tennis player Novak Djokovic walk a fine line between anti-hero and straight up scoundrel.
The question is, is this a story of redemption or is Garard still juicing, trying to game the system? Salacious gossip awaits, and it’s about time – CrossFit could use some new storylines heading into its next act.
