Own Your Performance!...

That's the slogan of my newly acquired supplement sponsor Rival-US, a sports nutrition company based out of Canada, formed by Dr. Darren Burke. Dr. Burke is a well respected scientist that has had many papers and research distributed world wide.

I have been with the company for a little over a month and it has been beneficial on both ends. Rival-Us has been in existence for a while now, but now they are entering in to the market in the United States. Several athletes over a variety of sports ranging from ice hockey to cycling. I'm happy to be apart of the team.

It is funny how the deal actually came actually came about. A former training partner of mine, Adrienne Power, a Canadian sprinter, contacted me out of the blue asking if I would be interested in a supplement deal. Of course I said yes.

As a professional athlete, I spend a lot of money on supplements, probably upwards of $2,000 a year, so securing a supplement sponsor has always been something I was interested in, I just didn't know the avenue in which to get that accomplished. It's funny how things work out. The compensation package they worked out for me was a big plus as well.

Dr. Burke and I emailed back and forth for a few days, he sent out some product to see if it was something I could see myself using. There are two very important things that this company possesses that other supplement companies I've used can't compare. One is the fact that I am always able to contact Dr. Burke directly at any time. If I have any issues or questions about a product, he's always a phone call or email away. The most important and critical, value added element Rival-Us brings to the table is the fact that every last batch of every last product is clinically tested and cetified not to contain any banned substances per World Anti Doping Agency and the International Olympic Committee standards.

As an athlete that is tested very frequently (I've provided about 11 urine samples and three blood samples in 2010), it is imperative that I keep a clean record and with the other products I have been taking thoughout my career, I could have been playing with fire. I don't know what's really in this stuff I was taking. For every drug test I take, I'm always nervous, not knowing if maybe something I took could mix with something else and cause and adverse finding in my sample, I just never knew. I know I wasn't doing anything illegal, but I didn't want to be one of those athletes you hear about testing positive and they say they didn't know how, because 100% of the time I hear somebody say that, I think they're lying.

I work very hard and if that happened, that would not only be devastating, but very embarrassing, not only to me but my family. I think embarrassing my family is one of the worst things I could possibly do. I'm not the only one that's going to have to answer "What happened to David?". My mom and grandma champion me at church so much, how is that going to look when they have to answer questions about me being a dirty athlete? Then it will give all the naysayers and pundit's who think I am on some performance enhancement anyway (trust me, I've heard that, I just take it as a compliment) the "I knew it!" they are waiting for.

Now enters Dr. Burke and Rival-Us. I've taken three doping tests since I've been on their products and I don't even think about the test once the USADA sample collectors walk out of my front door.

It's amazing how Dr. Burke is revolutionizing the supplement game. Any time you order a product, you can look on the bottle for the lot number, go to the website and look up the "Certificate of Conformance" where it has been guaranteed certified by the SAEF. You talk about having a piece of mind now!

The products work great and I'm hoping this is a partnership that will continue throughout the course of the remainder of my career. Hopefully you'll see me soon in some advertisements for the products, you all know how I love being in stuff LOL.

This is a picture they desgined to commemorate my performance and they used it for an update on the website, check RIVAL-US out!