From Olympic Slopes to Most Wanted: The Descent of "The Giant"
Ryan Wedding, once celebrated for his athletic prowess as a snowboarder representing Canada at the 2002 Salt Lake City Olympics, has become a fugitive hunted by international law enforcement. The FBI added the 43-year-old to its Ten Most Wanted Fugitives list, accusing him of orchestrating a vast drug trafficking network linked to multiple murders.
The transformation of Wedding from an Olympian to a suspected criminal mastermind is a stark and unsettling narrative. Akil Davis, assistant director of the FBI’s Los Angeles office, captured the irony of this downfall: "Wedding went from shredding powder on the slopes at the Olympics to distributing powder cocaine on the streets of U.S. cities and in his native Canada." The alleged murders of his rivals, Davis emphasized, mark Wedding as a dangerous individual.
Wedding’s alleged criminal enterprise involved trafficking hundreds of kilograms of cocaine from Colombia to North America. A federal grand jury in Los Angeles indicted Wedding and his second-in-command, Andrew Clark, in June 2024. Clark, also a Canadian national, is now in custody after being extradited from Mexico.
The gravity of Wedding’s alleged crimes has prompted significant measures to ensure his capture. Secretary of State Marco Rubio authorized a $10 million reward for information leading to his arrest, offered through the State Department’s Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs. If convicted, Wedding faces a minimum sentence of life in prison.
Authorities believe Wedding may be hiding in Mexico, under the protection of the Sinaloa drug cartel. Davis described Wedding as "wealthy, dangerous, and [with] connections in high places," highlighting the challenges in apprehending him.
Before his descent into criminality, Wedding represented Canada in the parallel giant slalom competition at the 2002 Winter Olympics, finishing 24th overall. The parallel giant slalom is a thrilling event where competitors reach speeds up to 70 kilometers per hour.
After his Olympic career faltered, Wedding’s involvement with illicit activities began to surface. In 2006, he was investigated in Canada for growing large quantities of marijuana, although he was not charged. In 2010, he was convicted and sentenced to four years in prison for attempting to buy cocaine from a U.S. government agent.
Upon his release, Wedding returned to drug trafficking. He has been wanted by the Royal Canadian Mounted Police since 2015. American investigators became involved when it was discovered that he was using Southern California as the hub of his drug trafficking network.
By early 2024, Wedding had established a network of stash houses in the Los Angeles area, receiving shipments of Colombian cocaine from Mexico. The drugs were then transported in long-haul trucks to Canada. Los Angeles Police Department Chief of Detectives Alan Hamilton said that Wedding’s network was moving around 60 metric tons of both cocaine and fentanyl through the Los Angeles region annually. Hamilton stressed that Wedding’s enterprise "leveraged Los Angeles transportation corridors to distribute staggering quantities of illicit drugs, devastating communities across the country."
FBI authorities labeled Wedding’s operation as "one of the most sophisticated drug trafficking networks in North America" and revealed that U.S. authorities have been pursuing him under the guise of Operation Giant Slalom.
Charging documents allege that Wedding orchestrated three murders between November 2023 and May 2024. Two of the killings occurred in Ontario, Canada, in November 2023. Jagtar Sidhu, 57, and his wife, Harbhajan Sidhu, 55, were mistakenly targeted in a retribution slaying over a stolen shipment of cocaine. A third unnamed victim was murdered in May 2024 over a drug debt.
Wedding’s inclusion on the FBI’s Ten Most Wanted List places him among other notorious fugitives, including a Bulgarian woman accused of defrauding investors of billions of dollars through cryptocurrency scams and a Haitian gang leader who orchestrated the kidnapping of 17 Christian missionaries in 2021. He stands as the sole Canadian on the list.
Wedding’s is not the only story of athletes falling from grace. Steven van de Velde, who played volleyball for the Netherlands in front of the Eiffel Tower in the 2024 Paris Games, was convicted in 2016 for raping a 12-year-old English girl he met online. Double-amputee Olympian Oscar Pistorius, once admired for overcoming adversity, was convicted of killing his girlfriend Reeva Steenkamp in 2015 and sentenced to over a dozen years in prison.
However, some athletes have managed to turn their struggles into opportunities for positive change. Michael Phelps, the most decorated Olympian of all time, has channeled his experiences with mental health and depression into raising awareness through his foundation.
