Breaking: Issam Asinga Sues Gatorade

This kid either has no idea that he was doping and someone in his camp was doing it for him or he’s a POS. I don’t believe for one second that those gummies were tainted by Gatorade

If you are new to this story, I suggest you first read Jonathan Gault's long feature on the case:

letsrun.com

Evil Coverup or Did The Fastest High School Sprinter Test Positive For Drugs After Eating Gatorade Gummies?

LetsRun.com

Asinga, who ran 9.89 and 19.97 last year, says he tested positive for the banned substance GW1516 due to a contaminated batch of Gatorade Recovery Gummies that he got from Gatorade at an awards ceremony. The gummies were fals...

Link:www.letsrun.com/news/2024/07/the-issam...

and there also is another messageboard thread on the matter (I"ve closed that thread to new posts and this will be the thread moving forward):

In the last post of the other thread, I wrote the following.

We have an update. Asinga has filed suit against Gatorade.

Gatorade "miraculously" (written sarcastically) has found the actual lot that Asinga's gummies came from and a bottle was tested - they did not test positive for GW1516. Asinga had another athlete from the awards ceremony send in his gummies - they did not test positive either.

So that's not looking good for Asinga. But what's wild is Asigna then had his original gummies tested again -they tested negative. And Asinga has now filed suit against Gatorade with the argument being pretty straightforward- your delay in providing me the actual lot number to be tested - ruined my ability to prove my innocence.

Jonathan Gault is on vacation this week so we are short-staffed but here is the email Asigna's lawyer wrote Jonathan:

Dear Jon,

Thank you for your thorough coverage of Issam’s important story. Yesterday’s article was another needed spotlight.

Finally, we can share the latest developments with you. We are planning to file a Complaint today in the District of New York and it will include the recent developments. I’m attaching an advanced copy of the Complaint.

We got big news after sending you the last version of our Complaint. The news was that, receiving bad press due to Issam’s case and the citation by NSF for misuse of its label, Gatorade suddenly (and suspiciously) located the reserve sealed bottles from the correct lot that we suspected they had all along. They volunteered to send it to AIU for additional testing. The story unfolds on page 23 of the Complaint, attached, and goes like this:

NSF Issues Public Notice of Gatorade’s Unauthorized Use

of the NSF Certified for Sport Mark and Gatorade “Finds” the Missing Lot

· On June 4, 2024, NSF issued a Public Notice citing Gatorade for “unauthorized use of the NSF Certified for Sport Mark” on the Gatorade Recovery Gummies it gave to Issam and others. (See Exhibit 1 to this Complaint.)

· Following NSF’s publication of the unauthorized use notice, and following Issam’s ban from sport, Gatorade began to receive negative press.

· Issam then received shocking news: Gatorade had called AIU and informed it that, after more six months of saying no sealed supplement from the same lot was available, it had suddenly located several sealed sample bottles on reserve.

· Gatorade had received “bad press” from the Issam Asinga case and the NSF citation, and it therefore wanted to voluntarily submit one of the sealed bottles from Issam’s lot to save its own reputation.

·

Issam was initially elated: if the bottles he submitted were contaminated, this one would surely be, too.

· But the testing came back with shocking results. The sealed bottle from Issam’s lot was negative for cardarine (GW1516) contamination.

· Issam could not understand this news. More confused than ever, he began to search for other 2023 Players of the Year to find out whether they still had the Recovery Gummies gifted at the ceremony and could send them for testing.

· Issam found an athlete who still had a bottle of the gummies. The bottle had been opened, but it was better than nothing.

· The athlete shipped the gummies directly to SMRTL for testing. Issam was confident that this bottle, like the ones he had submitted in 2023, would show contamination with cardarine (GW1516).

· Once again, the gummies came back negative for cardarine (GW1516).

· Issam then realized then that something was amiss. Could it be that the cardarine was unstable, and no longer detectable?

· On June 26, 2024, Issam requested that the original gummies hesubmitted for testing (those which had tested positive for cardarine (GW1516) and its sulfoxide metabolite in December 2023) be tested again.

· On July 5, 2024, SMRTL released the results of the re-testing. Cardarine (GW1516) and its sulfide metabolite were no longer detectable in the same gummies which had tested positive the previous December.

· In other words, over the more than six months Gatorade misrepresented that no sealed bottle from Issam’s lot existed, the cardarine (GW1516) had become undetectable.

· Gatorade’s delay had cost Issam the possibility of proving contamination in a sealed container from the same lot he had ingested, robbing him of the possibility of ever meeting the AIU’s gold standard test for showing innocent ingestion of a banned substance.

|

· The direct result of Gatorade’s concealment of the correct bottle was that Issam was presumed to have tampered with the gummies himself.

We are available at any time for questions. My cell is ****, and you of course know how to reach Paul.

Best,

Ali

Alexis G. Chardon, Esq.

Here is the Washington Post article on the matter:

wapo.st

Teen sprinter sues Gatorade over doping ban that cost him an Olympic spot

Issam Asinga, a teenager who once beat Noah Lyles in a race, was elated when Gatorade honored him. Now he says the company is responsible for his banishment.

Link:wapo.st/3VWZUeB

why?

We like to have 1 thread per topic active at a given time. I think many newcomers may not want to wade through 6 pages of background. Here, we know what people are talking about. The other option was to just merge this thread into that one.

As I correctly predicted yesterday, Gatorade reveals their trump card prior to litigation severely weakening Asinga's settlement and litigation position.

When can I purchase a t-shirt with a bottle of gatorade to support him?

How much did our george floyd, the lovely shelby, get out of that?

lol

This email from his counsel feels like it is written in scammer language more than legal language. Ive worked with a lot of lawyers and they don't usually write like that. Without commenting on the specifics of the case, the email alone leads me to believe he's getting bad counsel here.

lol. Gatorade is going to take him to the cleaners.

asingas gummies were produced back in 2022. the gw1516 would have degraded by december 2023 as well. so obvious he doctored them. i think gatorade might have to settle for the improper bottle labeling, but he is guiltier than sin.

his career is over. it's the only chance for he and his lawyer to make a few bucks. Gatorade has screwed up over and over again

He probably injected whatever steroids he wanted to take into the gummies then consumed them himself.

Hey Rojo, you're not actually gonna let JG miss tomorrow's live MOnaco pod are you? I can't believe he would even want to miss that!

There can be only one!

He should have blamed some random burrito truck guy instead of a multi-billion dollar company with smart lawyers.

Wouldn't he be 23 when his ban ends? Regardless of how much he doped, 9.89 at 18 takes massive talent

I could see a company taking a chance on him, and it only needs one. Nike doesn't care about slave labor so what if an athlete of theirs dopes? And if he maintains his innocence I can't see him being too harmed by it

The main harm would be a loss of NIL $ in my opinion

So of all of the athletes who ate these gummy’s the one guy who pops for a banned substance just happens to be the the guy who transformed from a 10.4 and 21.0 guy at his state championships to a 9.8 and 19.9 guy who beats world champions in high school a year later? And who has a teammate who completely obliterated a high school girls record running faster than the vast majority of pros could manage. And not any of the athletes who didn’t have rediculous spikes in performance?

Sure.

Asinga was on numerous banned substances that he didn’t get caught using. I don’t care about the particulars I’m just glad he got what he deserved.

I agree this would've been the smart route. Instead, he's taking the ultimate-risk nuclear option, essentially committing fraud and slandering a multi billion dollar company. I seriously can't understand how his team has assessed the risk and gone this route instead of a 4 year ban.