True Left

https://www.yahoo.com/news/dirty-cheaters-olympians-let-loose-223905823.html

'Dirty Cheaters.' Olympians Let Loose on Kamila Valieva and the Russian Doping Controversy at the Beijing Olympics
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“Dirty cheaters, and we are accommodating them,” says Adam Rippon, who helped the U.S. win a team figure skating bronze at the 2018 Games. “I don’t know how the Olympics recovers from this.”
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“They shouldn’t be here at the Olympic Games,” Rippon says of the Russian team’s repeated doping violations. “They’re clowns.”
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The repeated doping violations from Russian athletes have been a plague on the Olympic movement and its professed to commitment to clean competition and a level playing field. “I feel sick to my stomach. What I’m feeling is my whole dedication to my sport, to my community and to my country — I’m questioning it all,” says retired Canadian skater Scott Moir, a two-time Olympic gold medalist in ice dance. “I’m questioning why I walked into schools for the past 12 years of my life and told kids what pride I took in being an Olympian and what that means, and what power sports has in bringing the world together, for fair play and the Olympic morals that we all believe in.”
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Rippon agrees, and points out the stark contrast with how RUSADA handled Valieva’s violation, by initially suspending her from competing in Beijing but then lifting that suspension, to the way the US Anti-Doping Agency managed the case of star sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson before the Tokyo Olympics last summer. Richardson tested positive for marijuana just before the Games began, and was banned from competing. “It really shows how Americans deal with it, and how and how RUSADA deals with it — they don’t,” he says. “They pretend it doesn’t happen, and pretend that people are picking on them.” Richardson herself reacted to the news that Valieva will continue to compete, raising yet another issue affecting social tensions, by noting “the only difference I see is I’m a black young lady. It’s all in the skin.”

Critics have said that the doping issue, particularly with the seemingly constant violations among Russian athletes, can be traced to weak sanctions for breaking the rules. “A complete and total ban from all international competition is the only thing that works,” says Rippon. “It’s heartbreaking to think about the athletes who have spent their lives training, but the Olympics took a big blow today and I don’t know how it recovers from this. A lot of people have lost faith in the Olympics and in clean sport.”

https://sports.yahoo.com/beijing-olympics-kamila-valieva-decision-outrages-figure-skaters-234744980.html

'A permanent scar on our sport': Figure skaters outraged over Kamila Valieva verdict
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"The panel considered that preventing the athlete to compete at the Olympic Games would cause her irreparable harm in the circumstances," CAS Director General Matthieu Reeb said.

What about the irreparable harm to all the other athletes and to the sport as a whole that has been caused by letting her compete?

The world of figure skating reacted with near-unanimous outrage to the CAS’s decision:
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Rippon’s fellow 2018 teammate and bronze medalist Bradie Tennell also shared a similar message about how the decision presented an attack on the sport’s reputation.


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Former Canadian Olympic gold medalist and two-time pairs world champion Meagan Duhamel shared Rippon and Tennell’s sentiments, adding that she wants nothing to do with the sport if doping is allowed.

How is anyone going to take the women’s event seriously now? We were just told illegal drugs and abuse are okay. If that is what this sport is about now, I want nothing to do with it.
February 14 2022. The day the Olympic spirit died.
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Many U.S. figure skaters drew comparisons to teammate Jessica Calalang’s anti-doping suspension, applied by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) in February 2021, before the 2021 national championships. Calalang’s suspension was overturned in September 2021, after 4-chlorophenoxyacetic acid (4-CPA), the banned substance, was found to be commonly found in cosmetic products she was using.
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Jessica was suspended for MONTHS. Protocol can change from athlete to athlete??? NO.

This is Calalang:



Can you figure out why the protocol was different for her than for Valieva? (Hint: see Richardson's comment above.)