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T<\/span>he day after Ross Rebagliati became the first man ever to nab the gold medal for snowboarding in the 1998 Winter Olympics in Nagano, Japan, judges stripped the medal from him after finding elevated levels of THC in his blood. Snowboarding\u2019s first year in the Olympics had the resin of bong water on it, and the revelation unleashed a media frenzy around the 26-year-old champion.<\/p>\n Rebagliati, who is Canadian,\u00a0ultimately reclaimed his medal. Technically, THC<\/a> wasn\u2019t listed as a performance-enhancing drug \u2014 yet. Still, the brouhaha left Rebagliati\u2019s\u00a0reputation tarnished and turned him in the minds of many from a winner to a loser. Media pummeled him for being a poor role model, his sponsors bailed\u00a0and Rebagliati lost the focus required to compete.<\/p>\n \u201cI wasn\u2019t recognized for what I had accomplished but for something illegal,\u201d he says today.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n \u201cI was more or less outcast. Regular World Cup competition requires 100 percent focus: No distractions, no girlfriends, no problems at home, lots of money. Suddenly I had no money and tons of distractions.\u201d<\/p>\n Unlike most\u00a0Olympic<\/a> athletes, Rebagliati has never shied away from being an outspoken advocate for cannabis, even though it is still shunned by those who run the world of sports.\u00a0At 42, he now runs Ross\u2019s Gold<\/a>, a cannabis branding company and dispensary located in his hometown, Kelowna, British Columbia (the home of BC Bud), where he lives with his wife and three children.\u00a0We caught up with Rebagliati to chat about Nagano, pot as a performance enhancer and his own hemp regimen.<\/p>\n Cannabis Now: What was the worst moment of the Winter Olympics in Nagano, the one that still vibrates?<\/b><\/p>\n Ross Rebagliati: Let me tell you about three moments, two good, one bad, all happening the same day. They all involve kids. I got a lot of fan mail. One little girl named her goldfish after me. Another little girl drew a picture of me and said she hopes her dad grows up to be like me. But one boy\u2019s dad wouldn\u2019t let him have my autograph because he didn\u2019t want me associated with his son. That hurt.<\/p>\n Ever since Nagano, you\u2019ve maintained that cannabis is not a performance enhancer. Do you still feel that way?<\/b><\/p>\n In a roundabout way. You won\u2019t be able to run faster or jump higher after using cannabis. But it breaks the monotony of repetitive workouts where you\u2019re in the gym for three hours a day, six days a week. During the off season, athletes often feel unmotivated \u2013 the constant training, the repetition, the lack of social life. Cannabis gives me motivation to get up early to go to the gym when it\u2019s still dark outside. Jet lag is another big issue when you\u2019re on the road. If you don\u2019t get the right amount of sleep, it creates more stress in other areas. Cannabis is a great sleep enhancer<\/a>.<\/p>\n Estimates say that 50 percent of basketball players use cannabis. Is cannabis the big open secret in all sports?<\/b><\/p>\n It has a lot to do with their background and what part of the country they are from. There are many athletes who won\u2019t use it. One reason is drug testing<\/a>. When I started there was no drug testing. It wasn\u2019t an issue. We were basically a bunch of highly trained kids and having fun. Snowboarding wasn\u2019t an Olympic event at the time. That was my unique situation. A lot of sports don\u2019t have drug testing and you\u2019ll find athletes discovering benefits and how it can be part of a high-performance lifestyle.<\/p>\n What\u2019s a typical routine?<\/b><\/p>\n In the morning, I use one teaspoon of 420 honey in my coffee at 5 a.m. I might puff an extract in a vaporizer before the gym. I use low dosages in the morning. Low dosages work extremely well and leave you with a sense of satisfaction and wellness without entering couch-lock territory.<\/p>\n Over the last year or two, I\u2019ve moved to edibles<\/a> and extracts<\/a>, rather than dry flower. Extracts are healthier and way more conducive to an active lifestyle. No lingering smell, no more $10 roaches, no rolling or no ashes. Rolling is kind of meditative but if you\u2019re ripping through your day, you don\u2019t have 20 meditation times.<\/p>\n If I\u2019m doing a long road bike ride I may take a taffy at the halfway point. You\u2019ll get the sugar boost and a few carbs and you\u2019re ready to pull off 20 more miles. But it also numbs pain in legs from lactic acid build up and CBD reduces inflammation in muscles and joints. It works great during intensive activity. I\u2019ll do 60 miles in four hours.<\/p>\n And for recovery?<\/b><\/p>\n To recover I have a power shake as soon as I get home: Creatine, a frozen banana, blueberries\u00a0and peanut butter mixed with a half cup of hemp hearts, the fresh hemp<\/a> seed, and a protein powder from hemp because it is a superfood high in omegas and complex carbs.<\/p>\n Your name has been synonymous with cannabis for the last 20 years. Any regrets?<\/b><\/p>\n Anytime anyone in the world tests positive, I\u2019m the guy NBC talks to. When Michael Phelps<\/a> got into his little cannabis situation, I was the one who went on NBC to explain why athletes might choose cannabis over alcohol. He acknowledged that \u201cathletes from other sports\u201d had come to his defence. That was me. No other athlete would come to his defence \u2014 why would they? What would they gain from it? For me, I had already lost everything I would have wanted to protect and I really needed to not be in the pot closet. I had to give meaning to what my life was after Nagano.<\/p>\n I use cannabis to amplify intimacy with others, sexual or otherwise. Do you?<\/b><\/p>\n I have sex five days a week with my wife. It\u2019s the most incredible thing. It\u2019s more than a hard-on, and I think intimacy is part of it. If you can get into that intimate mood, you\u2019ll be more likely to have sex in the first place.<\/p>\n It\u2019s the same with your animals. Dogs, cats, horses and your kids, for that matter. Cannabis gives you an intimate connection to the world around you, music, food, everything. It lends itself to wellness and feeling good.<\/p>\n So is it fair to say that cannabis ruined your life but saved it, too?<\/b><\/p>\n I entered snowboarding when it was in its infancy, before we were allowed to ride the chairlifts in Canada. Snowboarding was too much fun, too easy\u00a0not<\/i>\u00a0to go big. I see the same situation right now with cannabis, though with a lot more money behind it. We\u2019re not going to see another industry like this come our way for a long time.<\/p>\n Originally published in Issue 22<\/a> of Cannabis Now.\u00a0<\/em>LEARN MORE<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n TELL US,<\/strong> do you think cannabis improves athletic training?<\/p>\n The post Olympic Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati: How Cannabis Improves My Training<\/a> appeared first on Cannabis Now<\/a>.<\/p>\n
Olympic medalist Ross Rebagliati explains how cannabis improves athletic training, what it was like to get his medal stripped for testing positive for THC, why he prefers edibles and more. The day after Ross Rebagliati became the first man ever to nab the gold medal for snowboarding in the 1998Continue Reading<\/a><\/span><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":17,"featured_media":23934,"comment_status":"false","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[50,3417,484,85,533,1851,86,3418],"tags":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23933"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/17"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=23933"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23933\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":23935,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/23933\/revisions\/23935"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/23934"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=23933"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=23933"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/cannabiscultivatornews.com\/home\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=23933"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
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\nRead More: Olympic Snowboarder Ross Rebagliati: How Cannabis Improves My Training<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"