Kiefer’s consequences

Kiefer Ravena’s career is in limbo. A simple choice of drink turned into a life-altering decision. It appears that Blackstone Labs, which manufactures the substitute pre-workout supplement “Dust” that he took, has been under scrutiny by the US Food and Drug Administration (FDA) since at least 2015. That year, the FDA wrote Blackstone regarding violations in another of their products, “Angel Dust”. They were ordered to cease distribution immediately. The company has claimed 100% annual growth since it was started in 2012, until 2017.

“For the most part, their over-the-counter powders do exactly what they claim to do, in part because they sometimes include compounds not approved or even banned by the FDA. It’s a legally dubious but common practice – and an easy way to make a killing while giving people the results they want,” Gordy Megroz wrote in “Men’s Journal” in an article about Blackstone Labs. Dietary supplements are a $38 billion industry in the US.

But of course, Kiefer Ravena knew none of this when he was offered a Blackstone Labs product.

 I covered Kiefer’s father Bong in UE and the 1991 Southeast Asian Games in the Philippines, and the PBA. My sons were in the same basketball camps that Kiefer attended when they were kids. I’ve worked with his mother Mozzy on ABS-CBN Sports broadcasts. I’ve known the family to be upright, hard-working, God-fearing people. The last person who took my hand to put it on his forehead for the traditional (but fading) blessing or “mano” was Thirdy Ravena a few weeks ago. That is the kind of people this family is known to be. That is why this fall from grace, if it can be called that, stings so much.

Some people categorize it under “when bad things happen to good people”. Some call this situation “when good people do dumb things”. But this is not the first time that this has happened, locally or internationally. In 2016, Maria Sharapova was suspended from tennis after the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA) banned a major component of a medication she had been taking for 10 years. The apparent vindictiveness of the ban by WADA founding president and former Australian Olympic swimmer Dick Pound and his successor Craig Reedle, seemed rooted in the fact that the Russian earned the equivalent of the agency’s entire budget. In the 1990’s, at least one Philippine pro basketball player was found to have allegedly ingested a substance banned by the then-BFAD, simply because it was in a workout supplement he had acquired from the US which was not known here.

This writer put together a column on an African herb that Juan Manuel Marquez’s suspect trainer Memo Heredia had fed him in training before his sensational knockout win over Manny Pacquiao. The herb in question had had no long-term studies on its effects. Marquez has since declined every offer to fight Pacquiao again. 

Some asthmatic Olympic swimmers are allowed to take their medication even during competition. When ice skater Oksana Baiul’s leg was accidentally slashed by another skater’s blade before the finals of the 1994 Winter Olympics, she was allowed to take pain killers while being stitched up. She won the gold medal. 

What needs to happen is greater coordination among doping agencies to have a consolidated list of banned substances, while simultaneously recognizing each country’s right to accept some of those substances within their shores.

As for Kiefer Ravena, financially, he will be okay. Luckily, the standard two-year ban was shortened to 18 months because of his forthrightness. He may, however, lose his hard-earned edge because there is simply no substitute for actual competition. Perhaps he can take inspiration from Muhammad Ali, who was stripped of his license for refusing to be drafted for the Vietnam War. Ali lost three peak years of his career, but still became the first man to win the world heavyweight belt three times. For now, that would have to do to keep Kiefer going.

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ColorManila, currently the biggest fun-run organizer in the Philippines, will be holding its updated CM Challenge Manila, co-presented by Honda Philippines, at McKinley West, Taguig City on Sunday, June 3. Participants of the 5km race can look forward to 20 new obstacles, such as inflatable slides, a spider maze, inflatable tire skip, military crawl obstacles, and others.

“There will also be a CM Festival which would take place every hour, so if you’ve joined the first wave, there’s no need to wait until the final wave to finish,” says ColorManila vice-president Justine Cordero. “Our followers will surely enjoy this newly updated version of the CM Challenge Run.”

ColorManila was established over six years ago by Julius “Jay” Em and Justine Cordero, and is known for setting up events in different parts of the country from Ilocos Sur to Davao. Among their 22 events for the year alone, they have an upcoming “2018 Philippines Marvel Run” on July 7 at the SM Mall of Asia Event Grounds.

For more information, visit www.colormanila.com.