Sha’Carri Richardson, the American sprinter who was favored to win the women’s 100 meters during the Tokyo Summer Olympics, will be watching the event on television thanks to the International Olympic Committee.
Richardson tested positive for marijuana. It’s use by adults is legal in many American states including our neighbor to the east, Illinois. Athletes testify that THC, the active ingredient in marijuana, has saved them from painkiller abuse, depression and many other ailments.
But, so far, the IOC will not lift Richardson’s ban.
More than 200,000 people signed a MoveOn petition the first day it was posted last week, and it issued a condemnation of the IOC and its ignorance on social and racial issues.
“The imposition of a penalty against a world-class Black, queer, woman athlete is powerfully and infuriatingly reminiscent of the way drug laws are regularly applied in the United States,” it said in a statement.
“Recreational marijuana use has been de facto legal for upper-middle-class white people for years—something more states are recognizing as they legalize marijuana for all people and consider how to repair the damage done to Black and brown communities by decades of the war on drugs.”
Ross Rebagaliti won the snowboarding gold medal for Canada at the 1998 Winter Olympics in. After he tested positive for marijuana, he was stripped of his medal. He would later be reinstated as the winner because marijuana was not on the banned substance use.
He said the IOC’s Richardson decision makes him “sad.”
“The scientific evidence is there; that’s what should count,” told The Province in British Columbia.
“The IOC should be a leader for humanity.”
It gets worse when it comes to humanity and the IOC.
I guess its members have never noticed that most people of color and white people have different types of hair. It is obvious.
A specially designed swimming cap that carries the appropriate name of “Soul Cap” is being sported by Black swimmers across the world. But the Olympic Committee has banned them.
Apparently, it has been outlawed “because it doesn’t conform to the swimmer’s head.”
The smaller caps are insufficient for keeping hair dry, several Black swimmers told the BBC. Water is weight. It slows down the swimmer. This decision favors some swimmers and discriminates against others.
FINA governs international competitions in water sports – but its authority comes directly through the IOC.
“There’s so many barriers for black swimmers, and [Fina have] kind of put another barrier up – defeating the whole purpose of the work that I’m doing,” English swim coach Tony Cronin told Newsbeat.
“It just shows misunderstanding and ignorance. So, to see Soul Cap come out with a hat that actually helps us, but then to be told: ‘Yeah, we don’t want you to use them,’ it’s just terrible.”