Sha’Carri Richardson is just like everyone else questioning why a Russian figure skater who failed a drug test has been cleared to compete in the Olympic Games when her own positive drug test threw her Olympic ambitions off course last year.
On Monday, it was announced that the Court of Arbitration for Sport cleared Kamila Valieva to compete in the women’s figure skating competition at the 2022 Beijing Games despite testing positive for a banned substance, a heart drug called trimetazidine, in December. The test came to light days after the Olympics began and after 15-year-old Valieva helped the Russian Olympic Committee win a gold medal in the figure skating team competition.
The court claimed that the teenage skater should be allowed to compete under what they deemed “exceptional circumstances” because as a minor, she’s a “protected person.”
On Monday, Richardson retweeted a video about the situation where USA Today’s Christine Brennan called the court’s decision “a slap in the face to all of those athletes doing it the right way.”
“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,” Richardson tweeted. “The only difference I see is I’m a black young lady.”
Richardson was suspended for 30 days in July after she tested positive for marijuana, which she said she used to cope after learning that her mother died during the Olympic trials. Because of her ban, she was unable to compete in the 100-meter dash at the Tokyo Olympics.
