American sportswriter Jemele Hill told CBS that policies against certain swim caps as well those banning cannabis for Olympic athletes, are actually discriminatory.
Jemele Hill claims that Olympic regulations surrounding marijuana use and swimcaps have "disproportionately impacted athletes of color." pic.twitter.com/kPmFQaq2Bp
— The Post Millennial (@TPostMillennial) July 5, 2021
CBS Sunday Morning spoke to Hill, noting that Hill tweeted out that Sha-Carrie Richardson's disqualification from the US Olympic track team due to illegal substances, and the ban of a certain type of swim cap was "sending quite the message to black women."
Between Sha’Carri Richardson and this, the Olympics really are sending quite the message to black women https://t.co/1mMmNK37Qd
— Jemele Hill (@jemelehill) July 2, 2021
The International Swimming Federation banned the caps, saying that athletes don't need "caps of such size," and that the caps do not meet "the natural form of the head."
CBS Sunday morning explained that perhaps "some Olympic rules are written in a way that can lead to discrimination."
Hill said that "When you look at the full scope of what we are seeing at the Olympics, Simone Biles is probably the face of these Olympic games, at least from an American perspective, and then you have the controversy around Gwen Berry," the American track athlete who protested the national anthem by refusing to face the flag.
"You fast forward to what happened with Sha'Carrie Richardson," Hill went on. "Now you have this swim cap ban that obviously affects athletes of color, obviously is an impediment to young black swimmers. And so there is something that is there—and you wonder about these old school attitudes and how they have always, in many ways, disproportionately impacted athletes of color, but in particular black people because that's who we're talking about here," said Hill.
Jemele Hill, who currently contributes and writes for The Atlantic, is known to be vocal on race and political issues. She previously called President Trump a white supremacist and senator Joe Manchin a "cowardly, power-hungry white dude" for rejecting the democrats' controversial voting bill.