In July 2023, a 20-year-old track and field star, Issam Asinga, was on top of the world. He’d just snagged Gatorade’s National Boys Track and Field Player of the Year award in Los Angeles, following a massive 9.89-second under-20 100m world record and a wind-aided 9.83-second win over none other than Noah Lyles. Things were looking great, right? But then, in May 2024, it all came crashing down. Asinga tested positive for Cardarine, a banned substance, and was hit with a four-year suspension by the Athletics Integrity Unit (AIU). His titles- including two South American Championship gold medals were gone in the blink of an eye. His athletic scholarship at Texas A&M? Yep, that was yanked too.

Now, here’s where it gets messy. Asinga claims the positive test came from Gatorade’s “recovery gummies” that he had received at the award ceremony. He says they were tainted with Cardarine and falsely labeled as “certified for sport” by NSF (the organization that certifies products to be free from banned substances). The evidence hinged on having a sealed bottle of gummies however, the athlete did not possess it. Without proof of his claim, Asinga’s titles were permanently taken away due to his suspension status.

This Surinamese track and field sprinter initiated a lawsuit in April 2024 against Gatorade and PepsiCo about the entire scenario. On April 28th, 2025, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel made a decision against Issam Asinga when she dismissed his case. The judge rejected his claims of negligence against Gatorade because he had not established that his gummy consumption resulted in any physical injuries. The court determined there was no evidence that proved Gatorade intended to give him a tainted product.

Asinga’s lawyer, Ali Chardon, wasn’t happy with the decision. She said the ruling left Asinga with “no way to access justice” for losing his career, and they’re still figuring out what to do next. Even though the legal fight with the federation failed at first, Asinga still refuses to give up. Even after failing to achieve justice, he continues to defend his innocence through alternative methods to establish his purity. While facing a difficult path, he maintains his fight to demonstrate his innocence to the world. Such struggles have been previously encountered by other professional athletes throughout their careers.

Not only in track and field, another case of bad luck or just a dose of contaminated reality?

Back in 2020, former Olympic swimming champion Roland Schoeman was hit with a one-year ban after failing a doping test. He tested positive for metabolites of GW501516, a substance banned by WADA and known to have toxic effects. But here’s the twist: Schoeman insists the positive result was due to contaminated supplements.

In a statement, he explained that the “carefully selected” supplements he’d been using were likely tainted with the substance. And get this—he had passed two tests before the failed one and two after, which makes his case a bit more complicated. GW501516, also called Cardarine, is a pretty dangerous substance. WADA flagged it years ago for its health risks, including cancer, and it’s no stranger to the black market.

So, it’s no surprise that Schoeman’s situation caught a lot of attention. World Aquatics, formerly known as FINA, the governing body for swimming, only gave him a one-year suspension, considering it was probably just cross-contamination. He said, “I didn’t believe other athletes who claimed contamination until I went through it myself.” The timing of the ban was tough—his suspension ended just a few months before the Tokyo Olympics. It’s a classic example of how complex these situations can get, like we saw with Issam Asinga, a track and field star, and how sometimes, it’s not all black and white.