SPORTS MEDICINE

Olympic gold medalist Alex

BY WILL BRENDZA

Alex Kopacz had just come off the high of his life. After four years of training, unyielding dedication and single-minded determination, the Canadian athlete was standing atop of the Pyeongchang 2018 Olympic podium, the Canadian national anthem playing over the speakers, his heart thumping beneath his hand.

Kopacz and his partner Justin Kripps had just won gold in the two-man bobsledding event.

It was a high watermark in Kopacz’s already accomplished life. But that wave of joy receded quickly when he came home. Kopacz says he fell into a deep depression after the games. He had nothing to train for, he didn’t know what to do with himself, and, he says, he was likely suffering from some level of chronic traumatic encephalopathy (CTE), a brain disorder likely caused by repeated head injuries.

Then COVID happened. Kopacz says he became a poster child for the danger the new disease posed — even to healthy, athletic, young adults like him. When he came out the other side, he took a hard look at his future.

Now he’s a proponent for psychedel- ics and a spokesperson for the Canadian clinical research company KGK Sciences. Kopacz recently spoke at the 2023 Psychedelic Science Conference in Denver about his introduction to psychedelics and how they changed his life. Boulder Weekly caught up with him afterward.

“That [near death] experience, it was jarring,” Kopacz says. “And it definitely made me question, ‘What am I doing? I want to do something useful.’”

He mentions two works of media he consumed during this time that had a deep effect on him: Michael Phelps’ documentary The Weight of Gold and Michael Pollen’s book How to Change Your Mind

“I went from being an athlete who was abstinent from everything to leaning into different experiences,” he says.

He started experimenting with psychedelics — psilocybin in particular — and felt a turnaround in his depression.

“I was a very curious guy. So the selfdiscovery piece set me up; that’s how I was introduced to KGK Science eventually,” Kopacz says. He now works for the science company as a spokesman, advocating for the use of psychedelic assisted therapy and the benefits it can provide for athletes like himself.

According to KGK Sciences’ website, the clinical research company has helped “hundreds of companies with custom-designed clinical trials and claim-substantiation strategies to move products efficiently into global markets.” production, sale and possession of magic mushrooms remains illegal in Canada — for now.

From the perspective of an athlete who has personal experience with depression and anxiety, the potential for a natural drug and therapy regimen that could treat those issues is compelling. Especially since psilocybin — like lion’s mane, reishi and chaga mushrooms — has been scientifically shown to help grow and repair brain nerve cells more quickly. In Kopacz’ mind, that represents a huge potential for athletes like himself who are worried about CTE.

“A big push for me was how do I fix my brain? How do you ‘Change Your Mind?’ That book was a big part of me trying to understand what I need to do to fix my brain,” Kopacz says. “That’s one of the most exciting things about that specific form of psychedelics: Could athletes benefit from that in the context of CTE?”

Kopacz sees the potential for these kinds of drugs to help treat other issues as well, like addiction. The U.S. and Canada both struggle with opioid and fentanyl epidemics, and psilocybin mushrooms, ayahuasca and ibogaine have all shown promise in helping addicts kick their habits (Weed Between the Lines, “The addiction therapy drug,” April 6, 2023).

Many of those companies were in Canada’s cannabis industry. But now, as more municipalities and states in the U.S. start decriminalizing psychedelics, like Colorado has, KGK is positioning itself to start moving these substances into global markets — even though the

Many people are saying we are living in a “psychedelic renaissance” and Kopacz agrees. He sees potential around every corner, because the list of mental health issues these natural substances could help address only grows as we learn more about them.