logo
Suspended sprinter's lawsuit against Gatorade over gummies is dismissed

Suspended sprinter's lawsuit against Gatorade over gummies is dismissed

National Post30-04-2025
A New York judge dismissed Issam Asinga's lawsuit against Gatorade, in which the suspended sprinter alleged the company gave him contaminated gummies at an awards banquet and withheld evidence that could have exonerated him before he received a four-year doping ban.
Article content
In siding with Gatorade's motion to dismiss Monday, U.S. District Judge Cathy Seibel did not make a judgment on the suit's claims. She wrote that Asinga could not sue for liability because he did not suffer a physical injury and that he did not qualify for consumer protection because he did not purchase the gummies.
Article content
'The Court understands how unsatisfying this decision will be for Plaintiff,' Seibel wrote in the Southern District of New York. 'Taking the allegations in the Amended Complaint as true, he will … be deprived of his athletic career for four years through no fault of his own. Unfortunately, the causes of action he has asserted are not the right fit for the circumstances.'
Article content
Asinga can appeal the dismissal. His lawyer, Alexis Chardon, said the 20-year-old strongly disagrees with Seibel's decision and is weighing his options.
Article content
'[The] decision holds that a young man may be deprived of his athletic career through no fault of his own and be left without even an opportunity to prove his claim against the multinational corporation which he believes carelessly harmed him,' Chardon said.
Article content
Asinga sued Gatorade in July, alleging the company gave him 'recovery gummies' at an event honuoring him as the high school track and field athlete of the year that were tainted with cardarine, a banned fat metabolizer that has been found to cause cancer in lab animals. After Asinga tested positive, he sent the gummies to a lab that found the gummies contained traces of cardarine. The container, according to internal Gatorade emails included in Asinga's lawsuit, had been incorrectly labeled certified.
Article content
Article content
When Asinga asked Gatorade for another container of gummies from the same lot to be tested, the company told him it could not find one. It instead sent a container from the same 'batch' to be tested, according to the lawsuit. When those gummies tested negative for cardarine, the Athletics Integrity Unit, global track and field's anti-doping agency, handed Asinga a four-year ban that cost him two under-20 world records, a chance to compete for Suriname at the Paris Olympics and his athletic scholarship to Texas A&M.
Article content
Gatorade filed a motion to dismiss the lawsuit in January. It won that motion Monday.
Article content
'For over 60 years Gatorade has provided athletes products that are safe for consumption and backed by science,' the company said in a statement Tuesday. 'We are pleased by the Court's decision to dismiss the case as there was no merit or evidence to support the claims asserted.'
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Judge overstepped his authority in ruling against Quebec's language law: appeal court
Judge overstepped his authority in ruling against Quebec's language law: appeal court

National Post

time7 minutes ago

  • National Post

Judge overstepped his authority in ruling against Quebec's language law: appeal court

A courthouse in Montreal. Photo by Christinne Muschi/The Canadian Press/File MONTREAL — Quebec's Court of Appeal says a provincial court judge overstepped his jurisdiction when he ruled that part of the province's language law is unconstitutional. THIS CONTENT IS RESERVED FOR SUBSCRIBERS Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. SUBSCRIBE FOR MORE ARTICLES Enjoy the latest local, national and international news. Exclusive articles by Conrad Black, Barbara Kay and others. Plus, special edition NP Platformed and First Reading newsletters and virtual events. Unlimited online access to National Post. National Post ePaper, an electronic replica of the print edition to view on any device, share and comment on. Daily puzzles including the New York Times Crossword. Support local journalism. REGISTER / SIGN IN TO UNLOCK MORE ARTICLES Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account. Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments. Enjoy additional articles per month. Get email updates from your favourite authors. THIS ARTICLE IS FREE TO READ REGISTER TO UNLOCK. Create an account or sign in to continue with your reading experience. Access articles from across Canada with one account Share your thoughts and join the conversation in the comments Enjoy additional articles per month Get email updates from your favourite authors In May 2024, Quebec court Judge Denis Galiatsatos raised a legal question on his own initiative while overseeing a case involving a woman charged with criminal negligence causing the death of a cyclist. The woman had sought a trial in English. Galiatsatos took issue with a section of Quebec's language law that was scheduled to enter into effect in June of that year, a few days before the start of the trial. The law requires that a French translation of court decisions be made available 'immediately and without delay.' Get a dash of perspective along with the trending news of the day in a very readable format. By signing up you consent to receive the above newsletter from Postmedia Network Inc. Please try again The judge said at the time that the law would systematically delay English verdicts because of the French translation requirement. In a procedural ruling ahead of the trial, he declared the provision inoperable. His ruling was overturned by the Court of Appeal in late May. In a written ruling dated Aug. 8 outlining its reasons, a three-justice panel unanimously agreed that Galiatsatos's actions in initiating the debate went beyond his jurisdiction. 'Perhaps there was room here for a proper constitutional debate on the applicability of the (law) in criminal matters. One can legitimately ask this,' the high court ruled. 'But initiating, conducting and resolving this debate, unilaterally and in anticipation, as the judge attempted to do here, went far beyond the limits of his jurisdiction.' Following Galiatsatos's initial ruling, Quebec's attorney general took the matter before Superior Court for a judicial review, which was dismissed due to the absence of 'harm to the public interest in the judge's ruling.' Quebec's attorney general then brought the matter before the Court of Appeal, which said, 'the procedure followed here left too much to be desired' and that a judge alone cannot take it upon themselves to decide a matter in this way, using 'pure hypotheses,' a 'deficient procedural framework' and absent the 'illumination of a well-documented context.' If anyone chooses to challenge the constitutionality of the article in the future, it will have to be redone correctly, the court ruled. Droits collectifs Quebec, a Quebec civil liberties group, welcomed the ruling. The organization takes up cases of French language rights, notably in the push to get the Supreme Court of Canada to translate unilingual English rulings delivered before 1970, when decisions started to be systemically translated under the Official Languages Act.

Quebec's top court says judge overstepped his authority in ruling against language law
Quebec's top court says judge overstepped his authority in ruling against language law

CBC

time5 hours ago

  • CBC

Quebec's top court says judge overstepped his authority in ruling against language law

Quebec's Court of Appeal says a provincial court judge overstepped his jurisdiction when he ruled that part of the province's language law is unconstitutional. In May 2024, Quebec court Judge Denis Galiatsatos raised the question on his own initiative while overseeing a case involving a woman charged with criminal negligence causing the death of a cyclist. The language law's article 10 says a French translation of court decisions must be made available "immediately and without delay." The English-language trial in question got underway two days after the language law took effect in June 2024. Galiatsatos said at the time that the law systematically delays the delivery of verdicts handed down in English because of the French translation requirement. Both the provincial and federal attorneys general argued before the Court of Appeal that Galiatsatos could not raise the question on his own initiative. The province's high court agreed, and in a ruling Aug. 8 said the judge's actions in initiating the debate went beyond his jurisdiction.

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store