Richardson, 21, was once appreciated to win a medal within the ladies’s 100 meters on the 2020 Summer time Video games in Tokyo and had received the development on the U.S. Olympic trials. However she misplaced her spot at the U.S. group after she examined certain for marijuana, which is against the law however now not regarded as a performance-enhancing drug.
In the meantime, Valieva, 15, a favourite for the ladies’s person gold in determine skating, was once cleared this week to compete within the Beijing Wintry weather Video games, in spite of trying out certain for trimetazidine, a banned medicine used to regard chest ache that would building up staying power. Olympics officers decided Valieva would now not want to be provisionally suspended forward of a complete investigation.
Richardson requested Monday why Valieva were given the golf green mild to compete in spite of uncertainty about her eligibility. U.S. officers gave Richardson a 30-day suspension that averted her from competing.
“The one distinction I see is I’m a black younger woman,” she wrote.
Richardson stated remaining 12 months that she had used marijuana ahead of the Olympic trials after finding out in regards to the dying of her organic mom.
The IOC stated Monday that if Valieva finishes within the best 3, there might be no medal rite all through the Olympics. There may also be no rite for the group match she and the Russian group received per week in the past. The medal winners might be decided pending the result of the investigation.
The Court docket of Arbitration for Recreation, which passed down the verdict, stated that Valieva’s age was once probably the most components in its ruling and that banning her “would motive her irreparable hurt.”
Richardson was once now not the one athlete to criticize the verdict.
“You could have athletes which can be competing underneath two other methods, and we noticed that nowadays. THAT isn’t truthful, carry the age minimal so we will be able to all play at the identical phrases. This isn’t the decision,” tweeted former determine skater Ashley Wagner, who received a bronze medal with the U.S. group in 2014.
Meagan Duhamel, who received group gold for Canada in 2018, requested, “How is any person going to take the ladies’s match severely now? We have been simply instructed unlawful medication and abuse are ok. If that’s what this game is set now, I would like not anything to do with it.”
