The Difference between Kamila Valieva and Sha’Carri Richardson
The hundreds of people who bothered to watch the Olympics, and the thousands more who watched highlights on Youtube later, were uniformly stunned by the early performance of fifteen year old figure skater Kamila Valieva. Her routine, though focused more on technique than style, more ice acrobatics than ice dancing, was stunning. The world was in awe, then we found out she’d tested positive for “doping,” failing a drug test for having taken a banned performance enhancing heart medication. We were still in awe, but also a bit miffed.
Despite the International Olympic Committee’s draconian stance against drug use by Olympic athletes, and their denial of other athletes’ rights to compete or keep their medals, they decided to give Kamila Valieva a pass. They’ve given as their reasoning Valieva’s status as a “protected person,” a minor under age sixteen. Because what would the sporting world be if we didn’t allow drugged up children to perform for our amusement?
In fairness, it wouldn’t be right to hold Valieva wholly accountable. She’s a kid. It wasn’t her choice to take trimetazidine. Where the fuck would she even get it on her own? We can safely assume that it was given to her by her coaches, probably at the instruction, or at least with the tacit approval, of Russian government officials. Because that’s how Russia rolls. They drugged their athletes to their peak for years, then got caught, but kept doing it, got caught again, and now are doing it to their underage athletes.
Even if it was her choice, she’s a kid. Kids are allowed to fuck up, and take medications meant to treat angina. So long as we’re allowing children the “choice” to compete in the Olympics, we might as well also allow them to experiment with off-label medication use. It’s only fair.
One person who doesn’t think any of this is fair is Sha’Carri Richardson. Recognized as one of the greatest sprinters ever, Richardson was banned from competing in the summer Olympics for having tested positive for marijuana. It was an example of absurdly arbitrary bullshit, the fact that officials should even care about athletes using marijuana, which has never been shown to give athletes any advantages, let alone running faster, and is most often a hindrance to athletic performance. And it was an example of rigid harshness, even cruelty, that they disqualified Richardson.
She and many others rightfully cited this as a double standard. Apart from the six year age difference between Valieva and Richardson, there is one much more obvious and glaring difference.
Yes, that Valieva is Russian and Richardson is American.
It’s no secret that Russia is the universally loved powerhouse of every Olympic games, and of all events on the world stage. Russia is beloved. They stand above the lowly fray, doing whatever they please with a devil may care air of superiority. And, frankly, we all love them for it. The United States, meanwhile, is a global pariah. We can’t go anywhere and do anything without all other countries getting in an uproar. It truly is unfair, how they bully their way into every opportunity, flexing their economic and military might to get whatever they want and have everything their way, while smaller, less fortunate countries like ours get short-shrifted and walked all over. It didn’t matter how hard all of our country’s representatives fought for Richardson and came to her defense. Even President Biden’s brave and dynamic words on her behalf weren’t enough to sway the Olympic Committee officials from their staunch anti-Americanism. The world is deaf to the unified progressive pleas of America, all bowing at the feet of Russian exceptionalism.
It’s shameful, the way Americans just can’t catch a break, how everyone with a patronymic in their name gets a leg up everywhere they go. We can’t walk ten paces without seeing all the rules of the world written in cyrillic, and knowing tha rubles rule everything around us. That is what is truly unfair about this would, and about this Olympic doping double standard with Valieva and Richardson.
You also might have noticed that Richardson is a Black woman and Valieva is a waify little white girl.