The 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo were unlike any in the hallowed event’s 128-year modern history, with the COVID-19 pandemic postponing them for one year.
Like all of its predecessors, though, it produced its share of stars in the United States.
Gymnast Suni Lee won the women’s individual all-around competition. Swimmer Caeleb Dressel returned home with five gold medals, three of which came in individual events. Sprinter Allyson Felix won her 10th and 11th career Olympic medals, moving her past the legendary Carl Lewis for the most medals by an American track and field athlete.
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One of the biggest names associated with the 2020 Summer Olympics, however, never competed.
Sha’Carri Richardson was poised to be one of the standout performers from the Tokyo Games, an American track star who would have been among the favorites in the women’s 100 meters, one of the Olympics’ marquee events. She ultimately never set foot on the track in Tokyo, though, as she was serving a suspension handed down from the United States Anti-Doping Agency.
It was a moment that didn’t end her Olympic dreams, but rather delayed them. Three years later, Richardson is on her way to Paris for the 2024 Summer Olympics, shouldering the same hype and expectations she was prepared to carry the previous Olympic cycle.
Here’s what you need to know about Richardson’s suspension, career and her performances ahead of the 2024 Summer Olympics:
Sha’Carri Richardson suspension, explained
In the months and years preceding the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, Richardson’s star had been building.
As a freshman at LSU, she won the 100 meters and finished second in the 200 meters and 4×100-meter relays at the 2019 NCAA outdoor track championships. Four days later, she announced she was foregoing her remaining college eligibility and signed a professional contract.
It didn’t take long for her to make a splash as a pro.
At the 2020 United States Olympic track and field trials in Eugene, Oregon, Richardson ran the 100 in 10.86 seconds, the fastest time among U.S. women, beating second-place Javianne Oliver by 0.13 seconds. She had not only qualified for the 2020 Summer Olympics, but also would be entering the international competition as one of the favorites. Once in Tokyo, she’d have the opportunity to make history, as no American woman had won the 100 since Gail Devers in 1996 (Marion Jones’ gold from the 2000 Sydney Olympics was stripped from her after she admitted to taking performance-enhancing drugs).
Whatever hopes Richardson carried after that triumph were quickly squashed.
A urine sample Richardson submitted tested positive for THC, a chemical found in marijuana and other cannabis products. Though Richardson’s THC consumption happened outside of competition and was unrelated to her athletic performance, she accepted a one-month suspension from the USADA. The World Anti-Doping Code classified THC as a “substance of abuse,” one that carried a three-month suspension if it met the same parameters Richardson’s use of it did. Her suspension was reduced to one month after she successfully completed a counseling program.
“The rules are clear, but this is heartbreaking on many levels; hopefully, her acceptance of responsibility and apology will be an important example to us all that we can successfully overcome our regrettable decisions, despite the costly consequences of this one to her,” USADA CEO Travis T. Tygart said in a statement at the time.
As a result of her test, Richardson’s time from the trials was erased and she was unable to compete in the 100-meter event in Tokyo.
Her suspension ended July 27, which would have still allowed her to run in the women’s 4×100-meter relay race, but she was not picked for the team, with American coaches believing it would be unfair to athletes who had already been informed that they’d be members of the relay squad.
Richardson — who took responsibility for her actions and apologized to her family, fans and sponsors — told NBC she had smoked marijuana as a way of mentally and emotionally coping after a reporter told her about the death of her biological mother, days before her Olympic trials.
“I was just thinking it would be a normal interview,” Richardson told TODAY in 2021. “But to hear that information coming from a complete stranger, it was definitely triggering, it was definitely nerve-shocking. I know I can’t hide myself, so … in some type of way, I was trying to hide my pain.”
Richardson’s Olympic absence reignited a debate around the criminalization of marijuana, both in athletics and beyond.
Her positive test came at a time when states across the country were in the process of legalizing or already had legalized marijuana for medical or recreational purposes. Oregon, the state in which the trials were held, legalized recreational cannabis through a ballot measure in 2014. NORML, an advocacy organization that pushes for marijuana reform, condemned the suspension, with executive director Erik Altieri noting in a statement that it “makes exactly zero sense for regulators to continue to take punitive actions against athletes like Sha’Carri Richardson or anyone else who chooses to consume cannabis in their off-hours.”
Richardson received support from across the American political spectrum, with U.S. Representatives as diametrically opposed as Florida Republican Matt Gaetz and New York Democrat Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez pushing for Richardson to be included in the Olympics.
The World Anti-Doping Agency reviewed cannabis’ status as a banned substance in 2022 and determined that while there was not ample evidence that it enhanced athletic performance, it continued to believe that it posed a health risk to athletes and violated “the spirit of sport.”
REQUIRED READING: Sha’Carri Richardson wins 100m at track trials to qualify for 2024 Paris Olympics
Sha’Carri Richardson 2024 Paris Olympics
In the years that followed, Richardson recovered from the disappointment of missing the 2020 Tokyo games.
She won the 100-meter at the 2023 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships in Eugene with a time of 10.82 seconds to move on to the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary the following month. There, she won the 100 with a record time of 10.65 seconds. It was the 24-year-old’s first individual title in a major international competition.
Her victory came in a loaded field that included Jamaicans Shericka Jackson and five-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
“You bring who you are onto the track,” Richardson said after the win. “You bring your athlete into your life. Just knowing that people know me not just as an athlete, but as a person. There is no separate, honestly. So I’m glad I can display who I really am. Not my pain. Not my sadness. I’m happy I can sit here and be happy with home, and just knowing that it all paid off.”
During the World Athletic Championships, she also picked up a bronze medal in the 200, and was part of the gold-medal-winning team in the 4×100 relay.
At the 2024 U.S. Olympic track and field trials in Eugene in late June, she yet again finished first in the 100, recording a time of 10.71 seconds. Though she didn’t qualify in the 200 — finishing in fourth and missing out on the third and final Olympic spot by 0.25 seconds — she had finally made it to the Olympics.
“I feel honored,” Richardson said in an interview with NBC after the 100 final. “I feel every chapter I’ve been through in my life prepared me for this moment, to stand next to these amazing women that I’m standing here with, that I have the pleasure of training with. It’s a full-circle moment, but I’m very appreciative. I cannot wait to go to Paris and represent.”
Along with Richardson, sprinters Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry also qualified for the U.S. for the 100.
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USADA policy on marijuana
Despite marijuana being decriminalized in most states, the World Anti-Doping Agency and United States Anti-Doping Agency (WADA and USADA, respectively), still include cannabinoids to their ban list.
Per the USADA website, the reasoning for the marijuana ban is:
“WADA published the outcomes of a review of Cannabinoids in 2022 discussing how marijuana and cannabinoids meet the WADA Prohibited List inclusion criteria. In brief, the WADA Prohibited List Committee noted there is not rigorous evidence that clearly demonstrated performance enhancement. However, the committee was united in identifying cannabinoids as meeting the second criteria and the third criteria. In conclusion, WADA maintains that cannabinoids belong on the WADA Prohibited List and the substance category will continue to be prohibited in-competition.”
The first criteria cannabinoids do not meet is the potential to enhance performance. The second and third are posing a health risk to athletes and a violation of the spirit of the sport. CBD has been exempted since 2019, but it does begin to weave into a tangled web of legality.
This article originally appeared on USA TODAY: Sha’Carri Richardson suspension: Why Paris Olympics are track star’s first
