Aaron Brooks’ Clearing for Paris Olympics Gets Oklahoma State Cowboys’ Legend Recounting His Worst Times

At the U.S. Olympic wrestling trials, Aaron Brooks created a ripple defeating David Taylor twice to guarantee his position in the Paris Olympics. In their first match, he prevailed 4-1, which was Taylor’s first defeat against an American wrestler in seven years. However, in a turn of fate, a few days after this triumph, Brooks got embroiled in a doping controversy that almost jeopardized his chances to take part in the Olympics. Recently, the wrestler was cleared of the matter, taking away the cloud of uncertainty. That has led former Oklahoma State wrestler Jordan Oliver to compare his fate to that of Brooks.

Oliver is a two-time NCAA Division 1 champion under the banner of Oklahoma State Cowboys. The 2019 US National champion, who changed to MMA last year, has a troublesome history of doping bans. After Brooks was cleared of the charges, he took to his X to react to it, reflecting his personal disappointment about his fate. “I wish I would have gotten cleared 😂,” Oliver wrote. Oliver has been subjected to two doping bans in his career.

In the first instance, Oliver tested positive for amphetamine in an in-competition urine sample he provided at the U.S. Open World Team Trials on April 29, 2017. Oliver’s one-year period of ineligibility began on that very day the positive sample was collected. The second ban came his way in 2023.

During the World Team Trials Challenge Event on May 22, 2022, Oliver tested positive for 11-nor-9-carboxy-tetrahydrocannabinol (Carboxy-THC), a metabolite of THC. The amount of carboxy-THC in his urine sample was higher than the permitted limit. For that, he was handed a two-year ban that began on July 12, 2022, the date of his provisional suspension. While Oliver accepted the ban on both occasions, Aaron Brooks never had any doubt about his eligibility, from the very beginning.

Aaron Brooks was confident of his acquittal

In a recent Instagram story, 4x NCAA champ Aaron Brooks announced that he qualified for the Olympics. The original post, published by Obsessed Wrestler and Baschamania, praised Brooks’ 2024 route to Paris. The caption reads, “Olympic Trials Winner Aaron Brooks has officially been cleared for the Olympics, wrapping up the prescription/U23 issue he talked about on @Baschamania last week. 🇺🇸” In the said conversation Brooks made some explosive claims that painted an altogether different picture of the matter.

As per the initial news, Brooks was tested positive for Adderall. In the Baschamania Podcast, hosted by wrestling insider Justin Basch, Brooks assertively claimed, that what he tested positive for was “not even Adderall, dude, it’s Vyvanse.” “Whole wrong medication, so I already know someone’s twisting it,” Brooks alleged. But what actually led to this entire testing fiasco? That is even more startling.

According to Brooks, it all happened because he missed bringing the prescription for Vyvanse, that he was given because he was “struggling in school,” trying to balance class work with wrestling overseas. “…because I didn’t bring the prescription, it flagged as maybe he got it off the streets. So, what I then had to go do was show that I was prescribed it. Get it to lawyers and then to whoever it was: WADA [World Anti-Doping Agency], USADA… And they just had to put it through the clearinghouse,” Brooks said, explaining the matter. Amid everything, Brooks was firm about one thing.

He clearly stated that it was an attempt to malign him and his unprecedented achievement, although he did not point to any individual. “It’s funny how things come out after you win something or someone loses. Someone’s going to make an excuse, they’re going to kind of cry about it. That’s someone’s character, right?” Brooks had said in the podcast. Fortunately, the truth prevailed and Brooks is now back on his Parisian path once again.