Whiteout: The Olympic Snowboarder Who Became A Cocaine Kingpin
5/7/202645 min
A former Canadian Olympic snowboarder should have been a footnote—a guy who raced once, finished 24th, and faded away. But in early 2026, Ryan Wedding resurfaces as a fugitive on the FBI’s Most Wanted list, accused of running a sprawling cocaine network and ordering hits across borders. How did a middle-class kid from a ski family end up here?
Ready Alyssa and Tisha’s reporting on Wedding for ESPN
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Clips
Transcript preview
First 90 secondsSteve Woodman· Guest0:00
Folks knew the Colonel approved of his new Honey Chili Crisp and Jalapeno Ranch sauces the moment he tasted them and said... That's right, no notes, just absolute silence. Turns out some flavors don't need explaining, they just need dipping. It's saucy season at KFC with new Honey Chili Crisp and Jalapeno Ranch. Get dipping with a Boneless Bucket today.
Kash Patel· Soundbite0:28
Prices and participation vary. [crickets chirping] Campsite Media.
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:33
Hello?
Kash Patel· Soundbite0:35
What is this? So what do you want me to say?
Speaker 2· Soundbite0:37
Yeah, what's going on?
Kash Patel· Soundbite0:38
Oh, it's just a chameleon.
Steve Woodman· Guest0:41
Chameleon.
Kash Patel· Soundbite0:42
Chameleon Weekly. Oh.
Josh Dean· Host0:43
[laughs] Today's story begins in Thunder Bay, Canada, an unremarkable town on the shores of Lake Superior in Ontario. It's where the subject of this episode is born. His family are ski people. His grandparents even own a small ski area.
Alyssa Roenigk· Guest1:00
He was one of those kids who was on skis before he could walk.
Josh Dean· Host1:05
This is Alyssa Roenigk. I spoke to her just a couple days after she got back from Italy, covering the Milan Cortina Olympics for ESPN.
Alyssa Roenigk· Guest1:13
His father was a competitive skier in college. His uncle coached Canada's women's alpine team through the 1992 Olympics in Albertville.
Josh Dean· Host1:26
When he was 12, the family moved to Coquitlam outside