The International Olympic Committee have rejected claims from the US sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson that there were double standards in their handling of her anti-doping case and that of Russian prodigy Kamila Valieva.
Valieva was cleared earlier this week to continue competing at Beijing 2022 and leads going into today’s final day of the women’s figure skating.
The 15-year-old tested positive last December for the banned angina drug trimetazidine, and her sample also included two legal heart medications, hypoxen and L-Carnitine, Richardson was prevented from running at the Tokyo Olympics because of a marijuana rap.
Richardson said: ‘Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mine? The only difference I see is I’m a black young lady.’
An IOC spokesman responded: ‘You can’t talk about double standards in relation to Russian and American athletes, each case is individual.
‘Richardson’s positive doping test was discovered on 19 June, and the result was received before the start of the Olympics. She was suspended for a month. There is nothing in common between these two cases.’
The IOC says there will be an ‘asterisk’ next to Valieva’s name if she wins today as she has not yet had a hearing to determine her innocence or guilt of doping.
