Sha’carri Richardson: “Racist Double Standard Allows Valieva To Compete”

Benny A. King

American track athlete Sha’Carri Richardson has called out what she believes is a racist double standard after Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to skate in the Olympics following failed drug test.

Richardson was disqualified from competing at the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana.

In her Twitter, Sha’Carri wrote:

“It’s all in the skin…” Richardson said, “only difference I see is that I’m a black young lady.”

“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”.

Valieva, 15, has recently been allowed to compete after testing positive for the heart drug trimetazidine. She had blamed the positive drug test on having accidentally ingested Grandfather’s medication. Yes. For real.

Valieva’s lawyer Anna Kozmenko made an argument when the skater’s court of arbitration for sport hearing took place on Sunday:

“There can be completely different ways how it got into her body,” Kozmenko is reported to have said. “For example, grandfather drank something from a glass, saliva got in, this glass was somehow later used by an athlete. Or the drug lay down on some surface, traces remained, the drug lay down on this surface, which the athlete then drank.”

The Russian Anti-Doping Agency (RUSADA) had provisionally suspended Valieva for the substance banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA).

The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) ruled that Valieva was not to be suspended even though she tested positive for the substance back in December.

One of the reasons is that being under 16, Valieva is a “protected person” under the doping agency’s rules.

Sha’Carri, 21, was sentenced to a 30-day suspension back in July for marijuana use.

The American stated that she used the substance while mourning the recent death of her mother.

Richardson also complained about the officials’ announcements of each of their positive results.

“Failed in December and the world just now know,” Richardson said, referencing Valieva’s now six-week-old drug test that came back positive for trimetazidine.

“However my result was posted within a week and my name & talent was slaughtered to the people” she continued.

In a later tweet, Sha’Carri defends the use of Marijuana, given that the drug is not a performance enhancer.

“Btw THC definitely is not a performance enhance!!!!” she added, referencing her marijuana use.