“Faster, Higher, Stronger.” This is the motto of the Olympic Games and a mentality that has led to athletes pushing themselves past their limits and national Olympic committees to engage in corrupt, problematic behavior for the sake of running faster, jumping higher and being stronger in the name of a medal.

15-year-old Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva is yet another unfortunate example of this push beyond human limits. She tested positive during the 2022 Beijing Winter Olympics for a substance banned by the World Doping Agency: trimetazidine, a heart medication shown to boost endurance by increasing blood flow from the heart to the muscles. In a shocking decision, the International Olympic Committee (IOC) still allowed Valieva to compete.

Shortly after the announcement, the internet was up in arms as the U.S. American 21-year-old runner Sha’Carri Richardson began tweeting about the double standard the IOC was endorsing. Richardson was a favorite to win the 100-meter race at last summer’s Tokyo Olympics, but was barred from competing after testing positive for marijuana use. At the time of the Olympic Trials and her positive result, Richardson explained she had used marijuana to cope with the sudden death of her mother. Regardless, she was given a one month suspension and was not selected for the U.S. Olympic team despite the fact that marijuana is not a performance-enhancing drug and was legal in Oregon, the state of use.

What, then, was it about Valieva’s case that allowed her to continue competing when her drug use was related to performance enhancement while Richardson’s use was recreational? “Can we get a solid answer on the difference of (Valieva’s) situation and [sic] mines?” tweeted Richardson. “My mother died and I can’t run and was also favored to place top 3. The only difference I see is I’m a black young lady.” The consensus of global audiences has been that the decision to allow Valieva to compete while blocking Richardson was based on three main factors: Valieva’s young age, Richardson’s ethnicity and Russia’s global dominance.

On a technicality, the real reason for the difference in their treatment was the fact that Richardson is American. Richardson’s marijuana use was penalized by the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency (USADA) specifically. To Richardson’s misfortune, the USADA takes all instances of drug use incredibly seriously and consistently implements sanctions on athletes found to be using substances, performance enhancing or not. Russia’s anti-doping agency, in comparison, has lost every shred of its credibility after it was found to be manipulating athletes’ test results and was ousted from the World Anti-Doping Agency. Richardson was not allowed to compete while Valieva was allowed to continue because they come from different systems with very conflicting views over following rules. This was a problematic enough reason as is, but is only further compounded by the global rhetoric around racial and nationality preferences for a child Russian over a black American who doesn’t fit the traditional cookie-cutter U.S. athlete mold.

The real tragedy of this situation is that the Russian Olympic Committee and IOC have allowed yet another young, promising athlete’s future and reputation to be brutally compromised by their insistence on breaking international guidelines. Valieva has faced immense amounts of bitter hate and degradation in online spaces from angry fans who called for her to be barred from competing. Yes, she should not have competed. But given the abusive cycle of Olympic training, we can be sure that Valieva was not the one who made the decision to take this medication. That anger and resentment should be directed towards her coaches and caretakers. Even without trimetazidine, Valieva was a beautiful figure skater with an incredible path of gold medals awaiting her. Now, she’s another Russian teenager with a shattered reputation and an early-career scandal that will be nearly impossible to recover from.

Russia wasn’t even meant to be allowed to compete in the games in the first place. After the 2014 Sochi Games, Russia was found to have endorsed and hid widespread doping among its athletes, and sanctions were placed on the country supposedly barring them from participation in the Olympics. After simply rebranding their team as the “Russian Olympic Committee”, as opposed to the Russian national Olympic team, their athletes still compete and win medals as “athletes from Russia” rather than as “Russian Olympians”. Using this embarrassingly blatant loophole, Russia has since taken part in three sets of games with no pushback from the IOC.

Even beyond Russia, the IOC continues to allow or only minimally punish behavior that exploits young athletes and affirms cycles of corruption. Over the last twenty years, the IOC has faced a number of scandals involving bribery in committee member selection. It has overlooked rampant issues with sexual abuse, the most prominent example being U.S. gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar molesting over 300 athletes.

Ahead of the Beijing Games, there were inevitable cries for the IOC to consider the human rights complications of competing in mainland China given the accusations of ethnic genocide against Uyghur Muslims. In response to these cries, Thomas Bach, the IOC president, said, “if we are taking a political standpoint, and we are getting in the middle of tensions and disputes and confrontations of political powers, then we are putting the Games at risk.”

In a world of widespread tragedy, crisis and war — look at Ukraine, Palestine, Yemen and so many other regions — the threat of “putting the Games at risk” hardly seems justifiable grounds for such deep rooted bigotry, preferential treatment on race and home country power and blatant disregard for the wellbeing of not only athletes, but the wider communities in which the Games take place. Change has to come, and soon: huge corporate sponsors of the Games can make a difference. Democratic countries that host the games moving forward can make a difference. Spectators around the world can make a difference. It’s time to put integrity and equality back at the center of these games.