The US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson has questioned why the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva has been allowed to compete at the Olympics while she was banned for a similar offence.
On Monday, the court of arbitration for sport (Cas) ruled 15-year-old Valieva could continue to compete at the Winter Olympics in Beijing despite registering a positive doping test in December. Richardson missed last summer’s Olympics after testing positive for cannabis. Few people regard the drug as performance-enhancing and Richardson said she had smoked to relieve the pain she felt over the recent death of her mother.
Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mines? 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. https://t.co/JtUfmp3F8L
— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) February 14, 2022
“Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mine?” Richardson tweeted on Monday. “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.”
Richardson’s ban was for 30 days, which meant she missed the Olympic 100m in Tokyo, where she was expected to contend for a medal.
Richardson was not the only athlete to greet Cas’s decision with dismay. “How is anyone going to take the women’s event seriously now?” said figure skater Meagan Duhamel, who won team gold for Canada in 2018. “We were just told illegal drugs and abuse are OK. If that is what this sport is about now, I want nothing to do with it. February 14 2022. The day the Olympic spirit died.”
In its ruling, Cas said banning Valieva “would cause her irreparable harm”. Last Monday, she produced a brilliant performance to lead the Russian Olympic Committee to team gold in the figure skating. A day later, however, the World Anti-Doping Agency-approved Stockholm laboratory reported that a urine sample taken from Valieva in December contained the banned angina drug trimetazidine.
Cas’s ruling was solely on whether the teenager can compete again in Beijing and she could still be banned from competition over the failed test in the coming weeks. She may also be stripped of any medals she wins at these Games.