The newest professional athlete to throw his hat into the ring of the growing CBD industry is Grayson Hart, rugby player famous for his service on the Glasgow Warriors and Bedford Blues.
The kiwi rugby player founded Pure Sport CBD after he spent years facing the trials of osteoarthritis contracted and exacerbated by the sport which he loved but which taxed his body greatly.
Other athletes have also turned to hemp and CBD entrepreneurship as the compound gains popularity.
“Knowing what I do and having experienced what I have, I was worried that I was becoming reliant on painkillers,” Hart, 31, told the Times of London.
Athletes are far from the only ones finding comfort in CBD.
Tons of normal people every day use CBD for their chronic pain, inflammation, insomnia, physical recovery and other issues.
“We didn’t necessarily go out with the idea to create a CBD brand or company. We were athletes who genuinely benefited from the product,” Hart told Forbes. “We were able to stop taking painkillers but we were quite naive about what it really took to take and grow a business. It’s really been a crash course learning how to run a business and what it entails. Fortunately, for us, one of our strengths is connecting with people who have skills and knowledge we don’t have as athletes.”
Hart isn’t the only professional athlete to have shown interest in CBD.
Former Denver Broncos running back and two-time Super Bowl champion Terrell Davis recently started the CBD company DEFY, which specializes in recovery-based athletic drinks and which Davis hopes will soon be a more prominent part of the NFL and other professional sports.
Rob Gronkowski, who retired from the New England Patriots last year, announced in August that he was working with a brand called Abacus Health Products, which owns CBDMEDIC branded products.
“Once I retired, I looked for better and more natural ways to recover and discovered CBDMEDIC. These products have helped me safely manage pain better than anything else I’ve tried. Building on my own experience with CBDMEDIC for pain, I’m inspired to work with the company to introduce new CBD products to the market,” Gronkowski said.
Other high-level athletes like fighter Nate Diaz, members of triathlon associations, even mushers in the Iditarod dogsled race have come out in favor of CBD with their own lines of products and with corporate sponsorships.
Sources