Photo courtesy of Twitter.
Fifteen-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to compete in the Winter Olympics in Beijing, China, after a performance-enhancing drug was found in her system and revealed on Feb. 7.
Sha’Carri Richardson, who was not allowed to compete
in the Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Japan, for using the non-performance enhancing drug marijuana, wants to know the difference.Valieva tested positive for the drug trimetazidine, a metabolic agent generally used for angina prevention and increases blood flow efficiency and improves endurance, assisting athletic performance.
Richardson, grieving her mother’s death, self-medicated with weed and was not allowed to compete in the Games despite being favored to win a medal. Vaieva, who was also favored to win a medal, was allowed to compete, and Richardson called out the International Olympic Committee on Twitter.
“Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mine? My mother died and I can’t run and was also favored to place top 3. The only difference I see is I’m a Black young lady,” wrote Richardson.”
Sha’Charri Richardson wasn’t the only one who called out the double standard on social media. Several Twitter users spoke on the alleged discrimination.
Neal Rogers noted that the drug Valieva used was clearly used to enhance her performance during competition, while Richardson did not.
“Sha’Carri Richardson was prohibited from competing at Olympics due to out-of-competition positive of drug unrelated to sport performance,” he wrote. “Kamila Valieva is being allowed to compete at Olympics although she had in-competition positive of drug clearly related to sport performance.
The decision to let Valieva skate despite her positive drug test came hours after she and her team had won the gold medal for Russia in the team competition. The International Olympic Committee cited her age as a factor in allowing her to skate.
The skater also had two other substances in her system, hypoxen and L-carnitine. The USADA unsuccessfully tried to ban hypoxen in 2017. Valieva failed to win an individual Olympic medal at the 2022 Games.