Shiny New Shoes, Apparel Drama, Lefteris’ “S**t” Attitude

Lefteris Theofanidis has quite the attitude, in light of his recent positive PED test. Reebok Nano X leaks are out there. CrossFit has released a vast swathe of 2020 CrossFit Games ticket details. Yes. A swathe.

Good morning and welcome to the WODDITY podcast for news about CrossFit. We are a daily podcast, Monday through Friday, doing CrossFit news in five minutes or less.

My name is Ben Garves and today is Friday, the 31st of January, 2020. 

Lefteris Theofanidis Drug Updates

WODDITY broke the story on Wednesday that Lefteris Theofanidis, the National Champion of Greece and third-place finisher in the 2020 CrossFit Open had tested positive for a banned substance. Since then, quite the dramatic story has played out. Theofanidis took to Instagram with consecutive stories spelling out that he doesn’t give a s**t. No, really. That’s what he said. This could be a long process. Typically the testing of a B sample and appeals process has taken 1-2 months. According to a story from Justin LoFranco at Morning Chalk Up, the rulebook is not clear as to what happens with Theofanidis’s National Champion role if he receives sanctions. 

Here are some additional caveats: we don’t know which substance Theofanidis tested positive for. Testing of a B sample rarely changes the result of a positive test. The B sample is just the second half of the original drug test. They are separated at the time of the testing and give a second confirmation to double check there was no contamination during the testing of the A sample. The appeals process gives athletes an opportunity to show CrossFit they’ve fallen prey to contaminated food or supplements. In cases where appeals have been upheld by CrossFit, athletes have historically still received a two-year ban from competition, so it’s unlikely Theofanidis will get out of this unscathed.

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Reebok Nano X and New Nano 9 Colors

Note: The Reebok Nano X has been confirmed for a May 5, 2020 release date.

Fresh off the heels of our Reebok Nano X leaks last week (yes, that’s a shoe pun), the official CrossFit shoe-maker has released a country pride coloway set for the United States. They’re subtle, but cool. I have the link for you. If you use the link in our show notes, you can get 25% off select Nano 9s today, using the code NANO25.

Gazelle to Gorilla

Billy Brown at GearJunkie has made a difficult transition from ultramarathons (basically every run longer than 26.2 miles) and CrossFit to powerlifting. If you ever want to take a hiatus or focus a bit on your powerlifting, he wrote a quick guide with five tips for going, what he calls “From Gazelle to Gorilla”. 

2020 CrossFit Games Tickets

CrossFit has released some in-depth details about 2020 CrossFit Games tickets, including packages, kids, affiliate pre-sale, tickets for competitors, camping, RVs, and parking. I have a link to that, if you want to go read in-depth. I wrote a quick-reference guide this week for important details we know about the 2020 Games. You can find that in my show notes or at WODDITY.com. 

Rich Froning Sightings

If you’re interested in Rich Froning sightings, Froning took to Instagram to announce where the CrossFit Mayhem Freedom team will be over the next few months. In short they’ll be in Miami for Wodapalooza in February, in California for the West Coast Classic in March, onboard at WOD on the Waves in April, followed by both the Rogue Invitational and Madrid CrossFit Championship in May.

Questionable Vull Sport Business Practices

Brittney Kleyn at Morning Chalk Up wrote an article about the apparel company Vull Sport taking numerous orders from customers which have not been fulfilled in months. Kleyn has been actively trying to get a comment from Vull Sport regarding the missing products, but felt obligated to publish the piece given that the company was publicly touting their next product launch while ignoring customers who had purchased products but never received them.

Paul Trembley Appendix

Closing things out, Paul Trembley had his appendix out after developing stomach pain. He’s in good spirits and has been joking with other athletes, like Dan Bailey, on Instagram. 

And that’s it for news about CrossFit for Friday, January 31st. Thanks for listening. Please be sure to rate, review, subscribe, and share. For WODDITY, I’m Ben Garves. Unless something breaks, let’s rendezvous back here on Monday. 

By Ben Garves

Ben Garves is a digital product expert, author, entertainer, and activist. His portfolio of thought leadership in digital marketing and web experiences has included major clients like Microsoft, Google, Twitter, eBay, and Facebook. He’s also a freelance health and fitness journalist with over 400 stories written since 2018, a podcaster with 200 episodes to his name, and runs a YouTube channel with over 100 fitness and activism-oriented videos and live streams. Ben has founded the Fitness is for Everyone™ initiative to raise awareness about social injustice in both racial inequality and socioeconomic disparity in access to quality fitness and nutrition options around the globe.