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Following a controversial suspension that cost her her spot for the Tokyo Games, U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson is an Olympian.
The 24-year-old will make her Olympic debut in Paris in one of the signature events of the Games — the 100 meters. She’s an almost certain bet to run for the U.S. on its 4×100 relay team.
The Paris Games signal a chance for Richardson to make an Olympic mark that she was denied in 2021. Richardson qualified for the U.S. team in 2021 with the fastest 100-meter time at U.S. track and field trials. After the trials, she tested positive for THC. She later acknowledged that she smoked cannabis, citing a “state of emotional panic” after learning of the death of her biological mother.
“I am human,” Richardson wrote at the time on social media.
Cannabis was then and continues to be increasingly legalized and decriminalized in the U.S. Scientific evidence has shown that it has no performance-enhancing effects. But it’s banned by the World Anti-Doping Agency (WADA). Richardson received a one-month suspension and was left off the U.S. Olympic team.
What has Richardson done since 2021?
Weeks after the conclusion of the Tokyo Games, Richardson returned to competition, eligible to run again. She was not the same performer.
In a much-anticipated comeback in August 2021, Richardson competed in the 100 meters at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugune, Oregon. She finished ninth out of nine competitors with a time of 11.14 seconds, well off the 10.86-second pace she set at the U.S. Olympic trials two months prior.
She was defiant in a post-race interview and vowed to return to contention.
“I’m not upset at myself at all,” Richardson told NBC. “This is one race. I’m not done. You know what I’m capable of. Count me out if you want to, talk all the s*** you want because I’m here to stay. I’m not done.”
Contention remained elusive. In the short-term, at least. Richardson failed to qualify for the U.S. team competing in the 2022 World Championships. But then in 2023, her comeback found its footing.
Richardson not only qualified for the 2023 World Championships. When she got there, she won gold in the 100 meters with a time of 10.65 seconds. She was the first American to win the 100-meter World Championship crown in six years. Then she won gold again, anchoring the U.S. 4×100 relay team past a Jamaican powerhouse at the same World Championships.
Richardson’s remained at the top of her game in the run-up to the Paris Olympics. She won the 100 meters at the Prefontaine Classic on May 25. One month later, she secured the top spot again at the U.S. Olympic trials.
Richardson fell to her knees in joy after crossing the line first with a time of 10.71 seconds.
She’ll be joined at the track in France by Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, who finished second and third at the Olympic trials to also qualify as first-time Olympians.
Now Paris awaits. As does a chance for Richardson to rewrite her Olympic story.
