CrossFit Bans Laura Phelps-Sweatt, Disqualifies Westside Conjugate from Competition

In a post published on the Games website, CrossFit has announced that Laura Phelps-Sweatt is banned from sanctioned competition for one year. Her team — Westside Conjugate, which was scheduled to compete at this weekend’s Central Regional — is also disqualified from the upcoming competition.

An excerpt of CrossFit’s reason for the ban is quoted below:

Collection agents from Drug Free Sport, at CrossFit’s request, recently contacted Phelps-Sweatt for the purpose of conducting an out-of-competition drug test. She did not meet with agents to provide a sample. Phelps-Sweatt’s failure to submit to the drug test constitutes a violation of the CrossFit Games Drug Testing Policy and carries similar sanctions as a positive drug test.

Phelps-Sweatt is also a member of the CrossFit Powerlifting seminar staff, and it’s unclear whether her ban from official CrossFit competition will have any impact on that position.

Earlier this year, Phelps-Sweatt turned heads with her (apparently) world record time on Isabel, which is 30 snatches for time at 95 pounds. CrossFit Games mainstays like Samantha Briggs and Margaux Alvarez gave her some public props on Facebook, and the performance seemed impressive and completed with legitimate reps.

Now, her ban casts a shadow over Phelps-Sweatt’s impressive body of work in both CrossFit and powerlifting. She’s an accomplished athlete in both, though Phelps-Sweatt is perhaps better known for her work in powerlifting. A video of her 510 pound equipped bench press is embedded below:

She joins Natalie Newhart and Charis Chan as high-profile CrossFit competitors to receive a ban applying to the 2016 season.

In 2015, the CrossFit Games site published an article that referenced Phelps-Sweatt as one of Newhart’s strength coaches. 

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