After testing positive for three substances used to treat heart conditions, one of which has been banned by global anti-doping officials, 15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva was allowed to compete in the individual short program and free skate at the 2022 Olympic Games, which sparked outrage among athletes and fans and criticism of a double standard.

There should be a universal method of prosecuting athletes who test positive for banned substances that is governed by the World Anti-Doping Code. 

Minors have more protection in the eyes of many anti-doping organizations, but these rules must be consistently regulated. During the 2000 Summer Olympics, 16-year-old-Romanian gymnast Andreea Raducan was stripped of her gold medal after testing positive for a banned substance she had inadvertently consumed. 

 Further demonstrating this inconsistency, bobsledder Nadezhda Sergeeva, who tested positive for the banned drug that was found in Valieva’s urine sample, was disqualified from the 2018 Winter Olympics in Pyeongchang. 

American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson was barred from competing in last summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games after ingesting marijuana, and other Black athletes, including two Black sprinters who were recently disqualified from a race at the Olympics because of their naturally high levels of testosterone, are disproportionately and unfairly affected by doping regulations. 

The minor differences in these cases — the countries that the accused athletes were representing and the race of the athlete — and the inconsistencies in the ways they were handled demonstrate that a universal system to prosecute athletes is the only way to do so without perpetuating injustice.