PARIS – Sha’Carri Richardson isn’t apologizing.
She isn’t explaining.
Not for testing positive.
Not for her wardrobe.
Not for talking sh–.
Certainly not for her swagger.
Have a problem with Sha’Carri? That’s your problem.
To Richardson all of it, good and the bad, missing the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for cannabis or running away with 100 meter title at the World Championships last summer, were just stepping stones to the here and now and what she is convinced is her place in history.
“Everything I’ve been through is everything I have been through to be in this moment right now,” Richardson said. “So there’s nothing I’ve been through that hasn’t designed me to be there right now in this moment.”
Richardson, the 24-year-old Texan, the heir apparent to Evelyn, to Gail, to Wilma and FloJo, has come to Paris to claim what she what she believes is her destiny, to reclaim an Olympic 100 gold medal hasn’t been won by an American woman since 1996, four years before she was born.
While Richardson long ago gave up on worrying about her critics she also acknowledges the Sha’Carri of 2024 isn’t the same Sha’Carri of 2021. Or even 2023.
“I’ve grown,” Richardson said “with a better understanding of myself, a deeper respect and appreciation for my gift that I have in the sport, as well as my responsibility to the people that believe in and support me.”
Those gifts were on full display at the Olympic Trials in Eugene in June where Richardson won in a world leading 10.71 seconds, further cementing her as the gold medal favorite when the 100 competition opens Friday at Stade de France.
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Richardson’s favorite status was further bolstered Wednesday when Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, the 2022 World Championships 100 and 200 champion, second to Richardson in the 100 at last year’s Worlds, withdrew from the 100 to focus on the 200. Elaine Thompson-Herah, the 100 and 200 champion at both the Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo Olympics, will also be absent after suffering an Achilles injury in June.
Richardson will still have to contend with St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred, a three-time NCAA champion at Texas, and her U.S. teammates and training partners Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, second and third respectively at the Olympic Trials.
Alfred won the 60 at the World Indoor Championships in March (Richardson did not compete in the event) and then clocked a 10.78 in the spring.
Then there’s Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the 37-year-old two-time Olympic, five-time World 100 champion, who finished third behind Richardson and Jackson at the 2023 Worlds.
Richardson, a former NCAA champion at LSU, emerged as the primary threat to Jamaica’s 12-year hold on the Olympic 100 title after running 10.72 at a Florida meet in April 2021 shouting, “I am who I say I am!” as she crossed the finish line.
But Richardson didn’t make it to Tokyo. A urine sample she provided during a post-race drug test following her Olympic Trials 100 victory tested positive for cannabis.
Richardson admitted using marijuana after learning her biological mother had died that week.
She came under further criticism when she finished last in her first race after the suspension, the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, running 11.14 well behind Thompson-Herah’s winning 10.54.
Even so she pronounced the race “great return to the sport.”
“I’m not upset with myself at all,” Richardson told NBC’s Lewis Johnson in a post-race interview. “This is one race. I’m not done. You know what I’m capable of. Count me out if you want to. I’m not done. I’m the sixth-fastest woman in this game ever, and can’t nobody ever take that from me. Congratulations to the winners, but they’re not done seeing me yet. Period.
“Talk all the sh– you want because I’m here to stay.”
But she failed to even make Team USA for the 2022 Worlds in Eugene. She finally met the Jamaicans on a global stage at last summer’s Worlds in Budapest, crushing the field with a 10.65, making her the fifth fastest woman ever, fulfilling a boast she made as she crossed the finish line at the U.S. Championships earlier that summer.
“I’m not back. I’m better.”
Three of the four women ahead of her on the all-time list have won a combined five Olympic 100 gold medals.
Returning to Eugene for the Olympic Trials in June, Richardson ran three of the season’s top eight times capped by her 10.71 in the final.
“A full circle moment,” Richardson said.
A moment just like the 2021 Trials, just like Budapest, all the steps and missteps that have led her to Paris and Stade de France, eight lanes leading her to what she believes is her destiny.
“I feel like all of those components have helped me grow,” she said “and will continue to help me grow into the young lady that I have been divined and by God been blessed to be.”
