Snowboarding - Part B - by Anne Shier (a.k.a. "Annie")

(Based on the book, “Winter Olympics:  An Insider’s Guide to the Legends, the Lore, and the Games”, Vancouver Edition, copyright 2008 by Ron C. Judd)

After Ross Rebagliatti’s victory, the IOC beamed proudly, suggesting that these ne’er-do-wells (snowboarders) really did fit in nicely with the whole notion of the Olympic spirit.

The announcement came three days later, and most of us in the main press centre in Nagano didn’t know whether to laugh, cry, or run for our laptops; Rebagliatti had tested positive for marijuana.

Standing on the cusp of history, we all wrote the next day:  Only a snowboarder would find a way to get disqualified for using a performance-impeding drug.  Pot, after all, doesn’t exactly enhance your performance at anything, except maybe snacking or playing jazz riffs.

When the smirking finally subsided, the arguing began.  The IOC stripped Rebagliatti of his gold medal and the Canadian Olympic Committee filed an appeal with the Court of Arbitration for Sport.  Rebagliatti, for his part, wondered if he’d get out of Japan in one piece; given the nation’s strict drug laws.  He was, in fact, grilled by police about the matter.

He claimed he hadn’t smoked dope for nearly a year.  How, then, could he explain the positive test result?  It turned out that he’d attended a pre-Olympics party, he said, in Whistler, where the typical B.C. bud (of marijuana) is four or five times more potent than normal.  His positive reading was the result of second-hand smoke ingestion.

More smirking and teasing commenced and fellow snowboarders were either horrified or howling.  But the matter was more significant than it appeared on its face:  It forced the IOC to look, for the first time, at the relevance of positive marijuana tests at the Olympics.

Ultimately, the arbitrator ruled that no legal basis existed to strip Rebagliatti’s medal because of marijuana use since the ski federation and IOC hadn’t listed it as a prohibited substance.

Rebagliatti was allowed to keep his gold medal, which in fact he had never physically relinquished.  And no one should be surprised that he became a national hero in Canada where marijuana laws are, well, relaxed by many other nations’ standards.  Rebagliatti, a local celebrity in Whistler, which named a city park after him, was among the dignitaries and honoured athletes at Canada Hockey Place when Whistler learned via satellite of its successful bid for the 2010 Games.

copyright 2014, Anne Shier.  All rights reserved.