Originally published at: U.S. champion sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson can't compete in Olympics because she tested positive for THC | Boing Boing
…
3 Likes
Bloody frigging ridiculous. It’s legal in most states in her home country. And please tell me again how a relaxant could possibly enhance the performance of a sprinter?
24 Likes
I agree. Though i would guess (and hope) that Olympic level athletes would be more cautious about using recreational drugs ahead of events like this.
7 Likes
There was a few snowboarders over the years who got dinged for this too.
5 Likes
Marijuana used to cope with the death of her mother is in no way relevant to the Olympics. Let her run
She accepted the 30 day ban and should still be eligible for the 4x100 relay team which doesn’t run until after 30 days is up
11 Likes
That’s pretty barbaric - bunch of last century puritans.
9 Likes
Much joking took place in snowboard mags before the first winter olympics in which snowboarding would be an event. Everyone pointed out that probably no snowboarder anywhere could pass a drugs test, unless they ran nowt but 12- and 13-yr-olds. Sure enough, most of them were little kids!
7 Likes
and
Yeah but let me be a bit contrarian . . . people who train for the Olympics know what the deal is with this. They know that if they use banned substances they run the risk of being disqualified. If you use the substance you accept the risk. Pretty simple. If you need a bit of pot to get over the death of your mother, that’s fine, but you have to accept that risks disqualifying you for something for which you’ve trained your whole life to achieve.
Though I think she should get some credit for not claiming that it came from a food-truck burrito.
9 Likes
I would go further in suggesting that she timed it poorly.
As a formerly-athletic person who used to bicycle a lot and also operated a pedicab 20+ hours a week, I could smoke a minimal amount of marijuana in everyday use and still come out clean on a drug test.
4 Likes
Yeah, no shit.
So you’re saying it’s all good because what she did was stupid? Dude, a sprinting race isn’t an intelligence test.
What’s ridiculous isn’t that she was banned* suspended for breaking a rule she should have been careful to avoid breaking. It’s that the rule against THC even exists in the first place.
*Edit: thanks, @arteitle
11 Likes
This is some epic, immense bullshit. That’s all I got.
5 Likes
The article doesn’t say she was banned from the Olympics, it says her suspension will prevent her from running in the 100 m but will be over in time for her to run the women’s relays.
6 Likes
Agreed on that, yes
1 Like
There is a whole performance enhancing industry working towards beating tests and those athletes will be competing on the field, but this person can’t because she got high.
2 Likes
Do they also test for alcohol? Caffeine? Tobacco?
3 Likes
I think everyone here agrees that is true.
2 Likes
Having actually spent some time at the USOC training facility in Colorado (long story, but I did competitive olympic style archery as a kid), I can tell you that they’re SUPER strict about drugs legal and not. You were advised to consult with team doctors if you wanted to take so much as an advil or an OTC cold remedy. We were also told that if we won anything significant related to an olympic qualifier, we could expect to be immediately escorted from the competition line directly to a bathroom to have someone watch us “provide a sample” (and had to directly witness liquid leaving your body and entering the sample container).
They’re really hardcore about this (which is why the competition to have undetectable substances is so huge).
7 Likes
…let alone a relaxant that is also a mild* hallucinogen, FFS!
*Most of the time, anyway. There’s some Jamaican stuff that can induce tripping balls.
2 Likes
8 Likes
