It's so transparent. Speaking in the abstract, beyond sports: A system is rigged so certain people win. The lie of meritocracy says that those people deserved to win because they are "actually" better according to (supposedly) real standards and rules by which they (allegedly) properly played. If someone else manages to win, the guardians of the system say that person must have cheated. When they're hungry for a scapegoat, they pick some victim more or less at random, even if their narrative makes no sense, about how that person is a cheater in their essence and can never honestly and fairly compete. It bolsters their own (false) victim narrative about themselves.