June 6th, 2019 – Yesterday, former Swolverine sponsored athlete Chantelle Loehner was banned from competition as a result of her breach of the CrossFit Drug Testing Policy. Loehner, member of Team Invictus X, who finished first, overall at the Mid-Atlantic CrossFit Challenge, is suspended for four years as of April 14, 2019. She will not be eligible until April 14, 2023.
In a recorded statement with Swolverine, Loehner reported, “After we ruled out that there wasn’t any error in the B sample, I had thought of everything I could have possibly taken since I last got tested at WZA 2018. We did some research on what the substance is [Turinabol]. Everything that I had taken from Swolverine I had been tested on and I’m confident that myself and any other athlete taking Swolverine products were and are safe."
Loehner, tested positive for metabolites of Chlorodehydromethyltestosterone (CDMT) or better known by its brand name Oral Turinabol an anabolic-androgenic oral steroid (AAS).
“Turinabol is an exogenous anabolic steroid, which is a synthetic androgenic” commented Anesthesiologist Dr. Scott Spendlove on behalf of Swolverine. “Turinabol is a cross between Dianabol (Dbol) and Clostebol with less known androgenic effects. Turinabol is also not for legal sale or use in the United States.”
All Swolverine products are manufactured in a cGMP, NSF registered, FDA regulated facility, within the United States. The Dietary Supplement Health and Education Act (DSHEA) gives authority to the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) to regulate dietary supplements but as food instead of a type of pharmaceutical drug.
The DSHEA gives the FDA authority to establish good manufacturing practices (GMPs) to ensure quality, confirming the absence of contaminants, verifying accuracy of labeling, maintaining minimal standards for marketing and packaging, monitoring and reporting adverse events, and making all records available for FDA inspection. Ingredients like Turinabol, and other doping agents, are not manufactured in the same facility as Swolverine products, eliminating any possibility of cross-contamination with a banned substance.
“This situation is the exact reason why we started our company. We wanted to provide high-level, elite endurance athletes sports performance products they can trust, through transparency in labeling; ones that are free of proprietary blends that use clinically dosed and proven ingredients”, commented Swolverine CEO Walter Hinchman.
“Most pre-workouts and recovery products use proprietary blends, which gives the supplement brand the right to withhold how much of each ingredient their product contains from the consumer. We believe it is the right of the consumer, to know what and how much of each ingredient they are consuming to protect themselves and ensure quality standards.”
"Leading up to the MACC and the weekend of the MACC, I was taking a pre-workout product from another supplement brand" commented Loehner. "I took this product to a third-party testing lab in Los Angeles after CrossFit had notified me of a failed drug test. The lab results said that the pre-workout was highly contaminated and came back positive for oral Turinabol, as well as trace amounts of other banned substances. After the lab verification, I’m 100% sure the cross-contamination did not come from any Swolverine product."
"Whether people want to believe me or not, I have the documents to prove that my pre-workout was contaminated and in fact the reason why I failed the drug test for Oral Turinabol. It obviously doesn’t list any banned substances on the label, but I just wasn’t careful enough. I didn’t read the label and I didn’t look into the product before using it. You don’t actually know what is in a supplement like the one, especially pre-workouts, and you can’t trust companies like this. I’m fully responsible for anything that I was taking outside of Swolverine."
I not only let myself down, but all of the people who have helped, supported, and believed in me along the way. For this I am deeply sorry.”
Swolverine Co-Founder Alexandria Best commented, “All Swolverine products are proprietary blend free. We have 35 elite level, regionals, games and sanctional athletes on our team. Each is subject to drug testing 365 days a year. Unfortunately, we cannot control the decisions of the individuals and athletes that we work with; we can only hope that they will make the right ones. We’ve worked closely with Chantelle for over 2 years now. She’s a remarkable young woman, with a vibrant and radiant personality, an incredible natural talent and passion for the sport. We’re greatly disheartened by the news."
If anything the takeaway is to have a moment of reflection about what’s really in the supplements you’re taking and who you’re getting them from. Demand more from your products and take pride in what you put in your body.
SWOLVERINE is an endurance athlete and active lifestyle brand. Made for the elite athlete, and the strong-willed our products were designed to fuel your athletic performance. We perform when you perform.
We believe that everyone can optimize not only their athletic performance but their human potential. The way we believe we can optimize performance is through transparency, clinically effective doses, and clinically proven ingredients with evidence-based outcomes. We provide the nutrients you need to power your active lifestyle.
