Rachael Ostovich-Berdon was issued a one-year suspension by USADA for testing positive for ostarine and GW1516 metabolites. She received a four-month credit due to “time served under a provisional suspension in the latter half of 2019 for atypical finding that was investigated by USADA and which did not result in a sanction once the 2019 UFC ADP was announced making her total period of ineligibility eight months.”
Via USADA press release:
During an investigation into the circumstances of the positive test, Ostovich-Berdon identified a supplement she had tried which was analyzed at the World Anti-Doping Agency-accredited laboratory in Salt Lake City, Utah. Although ostarine and GW1516 were not listed on the supplement label, the analysis revealed that the product contained ostarine and GW1516, the substances for which Ostovich-Berdon tested positive. The product label listed another prohibited substance, but Ostovich-Berdon did not realize at the time that it was prohibited. Consistent with other cases with similar circumstances, USADA determined that a small reduction from the default two-year period of ineligibility was justified.
Ostovich-Berdon received an additional reduction to the otherwise applicable period of ineligibility for her Full and Complete Cooperation. Under the revised UFC ADP announced on November 25, 2019, a Full and Complete Cooperation reduction may be granted in the event that an athlete demonstrates that they did not intend to enhance their performance and provided full, prompt, and truthful responses and information to all reasonable inquiries and requests for information.
Also under the revised UFC ADP, if a situation arises where an athlete tests positive and is able to demonstrate by clear and convincing evidence that the cause of the positive test was due to a supplement certified by one of the certifiers in the UFC rules, he or she will not be subject to an anti-doping policy violation and will be permitted to compete after follow-up testing and when there is no performance enhancing benefit in question. In this case, the supplement Ostovich-Berdon identified was not a Certified Supplement, and she is therefore subject to an anti-doping policy violation.
Payout Perspective:
The UFC Flyweight’s sanction does not hurt as much as it would if there was a normal schedule in the UFC. However, her last fight was in January 2019, a loss to Paige VanZant. Her sanction comes under the new USADA guidelines in which she could prove her case that it was a tainted supplement that caused the failure as she unknowingly ingested the banned substance. Of course, even though she was able to prove the source of the banned substance was from a tainted supplement, USADA still handed her a sanction.
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