Sha'Carri Richardson — the US sprinter barred from the Olympics for marijuana use — says the only difference between her and Kamila Valieva is their race

• Sha'Carri Richardson questioned the decision to let Kamila Valieva compete after a failed drug test.
• Richardson was not allowed to compete at the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana.

Sha'Carri Richardson — the American sprinter who was not allowed to compete in the Tokyo Olympics last summer because she'd smoked marijuana after her mother died — said race seemed to have influenced the decision to allow the Russian figure skater Kamila Valieva to compete in the Beijing Games after she, too, failed a drug test.

"The only difference I see is I'm a Black young lady," Richardson tweeted on Monday after officials announced the decision about Valieva's participation.

"Can we get a solid answer on the difference of her situation and mines?" she added. "My mother died and I can't run and was also favored to place top 3."

Valieva tested positive for the banned drug trimetazidine — a medicine usually used to treat angina attacks but can also improve endurance in athletes — in December. Once news of the failed test surfaced earlier this month, the 15-year-old was suspended from the games.

But the Court of Arbitration for Sport on Monday reversed the decision, paving the way for Valieva to compete in Tuesday's singles figure-skating event. The teenager is a favorite to win gold, though the International Olympic Committee said she would be ineligible to win a medal until her doping case is closed.

Richardson was barred from competing at the Olympics by the US Anti-Doping Agency after testing positive for THC, the main psychoactive compound in marijuana, at the Olympic trials before the Tokyo Games.

On NBC's "Today" show, Richardson said she'd used marijuana upon learning of the death of her biological mother a few days before the trials.

The USA Track & Field star said that a reporter had inadvertently broken the news and that she'd used cannabis to cope with the "emotional panic" that ensued.

"To hear that information come from a complete stranger, it was definitely triggering," Richardson said. "It was definitely nerve-shocking."

She added: "No offense against him at all; he was just doing his job. But definitely that set me in a state of mind — in a state of emotional panic."

The USADA voided Richardson's first-place finish in the 100-meter race trials because of the positive test, ruining her chance to run in the Tokyo Olympics.

Valieva is expected to compete in the women's singles short program scheduled for Tuesday evening in Beijing, or 5 a.m. ET.