Source: Steph Chambers/Getty; Jurij Kodrun/Getty / Getty
Record-breaking sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson wants to know why 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva can compete in the 2022 Beijing Games after failing a drug test when the 21-year-old was infamously disqualified from the Olympic Games last year for the same thing.
Richardson questioned the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision to let Valieva continue competing in the ongoing Winter Olympics in a series of tweets posted on Feb. 14.
The sprinter said, “the only difference I see is that I’m a Black young lady,” implying that Valieva being allowed to go on competing in the Winter Beijing Games was a benefit of the figure skater’s white privilege.
“It’s all in the skin,” Richardson emphasized, before outlining that she was disqualified ahead of the 2021 Summer Olympics over smoking weed, a non-performance enhancing drug, after the death of her biological mother. In contrast, Valieva was pinned for using trimetazidine, which increases blood flow to the heart.
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport defended its decision on Valieva’s case by arguing that the 15-year-old is a “protected person” who is therefore subjected to different rules than the adult athletes who also compete at the Olympic level.
In a video Richardson re-tweeted, USA TODAY Sports correspondent Christine Brennan detailed that the Court of Arbitration for Sport’s decision is one she thought she would “never see.”
“What a devastating blow to those athletes — who’ve done things the right way and fought so hard for clean sport,” Brennan stated, later adding, “To have someone who has a positive doping test competing in these Olympic Games is just a slap in the face to all those athletes doing it the right way. [It’s] A very dark day for the Olympic Games.”
Reports state it’s very likely Valieva will take home the gold medal in the women’s figure skating competition.
See Richardson’s tweets on the topic down below.
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