Author: Benny Greenspan | Wild About Trial
The Winter Olympics are coming up! With the top skiers, snowboarders, and hockey players amongst others gearing up to compete in the pinnacle of not only their sports careers, but likely their lives, let’s take a look at a former Olympic athlete whose career path took a turn after the Olympic games:
Ryan Wedding, a Canadian former Olympic snowboarder, was arrested on the night of Thursday, January 22, 2026, according to FBI director Kash Patel. Patel stated that the FBI believed that Wedding was hiding in Mexico for over a decade to evade federal authorities, and that Wedding was “running and participating in a transnational drug trafficking operation.”
Specifically, Patel said Wedding shipped hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia, through Mexico and Southern California to the United States and Canada, and described him as a “modern-day Pablo Escobar.” His drug escapades trace back to 2008, just 6 years after competing in the Salt Lake City Winter Olympics.
His infamy reached such great heights that there was a $15 million reward for information leading to his arrest and he was placed on the FBI’s “Ten Most Wanted” list. Wedding is one of 36 total who were arrested and involved in his organization.
This is not Wedding’s first run-in with the law either. In 2009, Wedding was arrested and found guilty of conspiracy to distribute cocaine. Court records indicate that he was sentenced to 48 months in federal prison and was released in December 2011.
Wedding is not just accused of organizing his own drug empire, but of orchestrating the killing of multiple witnesses and victims, including one who was allegedly fatally shot at a restaurant after Wedding “placed a bounty” on their head.
It is safe to say that Wedding’s future prison sentence will be longer than 48 months – probably reaching a life sentence. Wedding’s first court appearance will be on Monday, January 26, 2026. Maybe it would have been best if he stuck to snowboarding, as opposed to “snow” distributing.
