It’s Almost Impossible to Be a Running Fan

Professional runners have to endure extraordinary deprivation, pain, and pressure to reach the Olympics. Professional-running fans, meanwhile, have to endure the question of which athletes actually deserve to be there. This summer, before the U.S. trials for the Tokyo Olympics had even finished, fans were forced to digest the fact that two of America’s track-and-field athletes most likely to medal wouldn’t be headed to the Games. Not because they’d lost to better athletes, but because they’d been caught in the snare of the anti-doping system, for better or worse.

Many would say for worse.

One of the cases is fairly cut-and-dried. The sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson ingested marijuana after getting the. Although sentiments in the United States about marijuana have , and the idea of THC being performance-enhancing for her particular discipline is , the drug is clearly banned during competition. Richardson admitted fault and accepted her penalty.