A U.S. sprinter who was suspended from competing within the 2021 summer season Olympics over a optimistic marijuana check is difficult the current resolution to permit a Russian skater to proceed to take part on this month’s winter video games regardless of the invention that she’d examined optimistic for a banned efficiency enhancement drug.
Sha’Carri Richardson’s suspension final yr drove a global dialog in regards to the world sports activities coverage barring Olympians from utilizing hashish, and it’s even prompted a scientific evaluation of the coverage by the World Anti-Doping Company (WADA).
However now the runner is overtly questioning why she confronted severe penalties when Russian skater Kamila Valieva, who helped her crew carry dwelling gold in a single race and is taken into account the favourite for a separate race, is being allowed to compete even after testing optimistic for a banned substance.
Richardson mentioned on Monday that she was confused by the seeming double commonplace. She mentioned she needed to “get a stable reply on the distinction of her scenario and mines.”
Can we get a stable reply on the distinction of her scenario and mines? My mom died and I can’t run and was additionally favored to position high 3. The one distinction I see is I’m a black younger woman. https://t.co/JtUfmp3F8L
— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) February 14, 2022
“My mom died and I can’t run and was additionally favored to position high 3,” she wrote, referencing the private circumstances that she mentioned led her to make use of hashish in a authorized state final yr. “The one distinction I see is I’m a black younger woman.”
“It’s all within the pores and skin,” Richardson tweeted.
It’s all within the pores and skin
— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) February 14, 2022
It’s definitely a legit query, as black individuals have traditionally tended to be held a better and extra discriminatory commonplace, notably because it issues medicine.
Richardson additionally identified that hashish is “not a efficiency enhancing drug.”
Btw THC undoubtedly is just not a efficiency improve!!!!
— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) February 14, 2022
The doping drug that Valieva examined optimistic for utilizing, trimetazidine, is thought to extend train length and enhance cardiac efficiency—results that might ostensibly have helped her, for instance, traditionally land the primary quadruple jumps made by a girl in an Olympic occasion this month.
All of this mentioned, there are additionally another practical variations between the circumstances.
For one, Richardson’s suspension was a choice made by the US Anti-Doping Company (USADA), which does function in compliance with worldwide athletics guidelines and has expressed sympathy for the scenario however in the end insisted that its fingers had been tied.
Valieva, in the meantime, was briefly suspended by the Russian Anti-Doping Company (RUSADA) after the outcomes of her optimistic doping check had been disclosed. The check was performed in December, so there are questions in regards to the timing of the knowledge’s launch, however in any case, RUSADA later lifted the momentary suspension, solely to be challenged by WADA, the Worldwide Olympic Committee (IOC) and the Worldwide Skating Union (ISU).
On Friday, the Courtroom of Arbitration for Sport (CAS)—a global physique that resolves these kind of Olympic disputes—launched a statement rejecting the challenges, allowing Valieva to proceed to take part. Nevertheless, some penalties had been imposed by IOC, similar to the truth that there will likely be no medal ceremony held for her occasion if she finishes within the high three.
Whereas Richardson mentioned she felt that race might have performed an element within the two totally different outcomes, CAS mentioned that the explanation was principally associated to the truth that the 15-year-old skater is a minor and subsequently a “protected particular person” who’s topic to a special commonplace below WADA code.
“The RUSADA Anti-Doping Guidelines and the WADC are silent with respect to provisional suspension imposed on protected individuals, whereas these guidelines have particular provisions for various requirements of proof and for decrease sanctions within the case of protected individuals,” it mentioned.
“The CAS Advert hoc Division was requested to find out the slender situation as as to whether a provisional suspension needs to be imposed on the athlete. It was not requested to rule on the deserves of this case, nor to look at the authorized penalties referring to the outcomes of the crew occasion in determine skating, as such points will likely be examined in different proceedings,” it continued.
Richard Pound, the primary president of WADA, instructed Marijuana Second in a cellphone interview on Monday that “definitely, within the Olympics, there’s not a racial bias in something that we do.”
“I believe the important thing for the Russian is that she’s a minor,” he mentioned.
Nonetheless, some U.S. sports activities commentators are bowled over by the CAS resolution. However the particulars and ongoing questions on this case however, it’s the newest instance of how the intersection of medicine and sports activities is turning into a broader query.
Richardson, for her half, mentioned final yr that she’d really feel “blessed and proud” if the eye her case raised would have an effect on a coverage change for different athletes. Even the White Home and President Joe Biden himself weighed in on the case, with the president suggesting that there’s a query about whether or not the marijuana ban ought to “stay the foundations.”
Pound commented on the acute penalty for Richardson’s optimistic hashish check, saying he doesn’t perceive why regulators “didn’t simply say, ‘sorry, about your mom, however for god’s sake, watch out with these things as a result of it’s nonetheless on the listing and also you’re exposing your self to the doable sanctions,” fairly than outright droop her.
In an earlier interview with Marijuana Second final yr, he mentioned that the the U.S. bears a lot duty for the enactment of the hashish ban.
Exterior of worldwide sports activities, home athletic organizations within the U.S. have began to undertake totally different insurance policies with respect to marijuana.
For instance, NFL’s drug testing coverage already modified demonstrably in 2020 as a part of a collective bargaining settlement.
NFL gamers not face the opportunity of being suspended from video games over optimistic assessments for any drug—not simply marijuana—below a collective bargaining settlement. As an alternative, they may face a advantageous. The edge for what constitutes a optimistic THC check was additionally elevated below the deal.
The NBA introduced late final yr that’s extending its coverage of not randomly drug testing gamers for marijuana via the 2021-2022 season. The affiliation gained’t be subjecting gamers to random drug testing for THC; nevertheless, they may proceed to check “for trigger” circumstances the place gamers have histories of substance use.
In an identical vein, the MLB determined in 2019 to take away hashish from the league’s listing of banned substances. Baseball gamers can eat marijuana with out danger of self-discipline, however officers clarified final yr that they will’t work whereas below the affect and might’t enter into sponsorship contracts with hashish companies, no less than in the intervening time.
Marijuana icon Snoop Dogg, who was featured on the Tremendous Bowl halftime present on Sunday the place an advert separate aired that not directly supported legalization, argued that sports activities leagues have to cease testing gamers for marijuana and permit to them to make use of it as an alternative choice to prescription opioids.