The American sprinter sent a strong message, running under 11 seconds twice in her second 100m meet of the 2023 season in April. Sha'Carri Richardson is set to race in the 200m at the Botswana Grand Prix.
6 minBy Evelyn Watta
Athletics
Sha’Carri Richardson has the swagger, and she’s backing it up with numbers on and off the athletics track.
Her impressive wind assisted 10.57 seconds on April 8, was the fourth-best ever women's 100m performance in all conditions.
A super boost for the sprinter known for her flashy attires and big personality.
Richardson's fierce confidence has also made her very popular on social media. With over two million Instagram followers, half a million on twitter, she’s one of the most followed track and field athletes and was namechecked in her favourite song by Canadian rapper Drake. Her profile could be a huge boost for women’s sprints.
After such a speedy start to the season, expectations are high that the 100m standout will light up the track after missing the Tokyo 2020 Olympics in 2021 and the 2022 World Athletics Championships after being suspended.
Richardson is back, blazing hot, and showing signs that 2023 could be the year that she finally holds it together to win her first major race.
- Sha'Carri Richardson runs blistering 100m at Miramar
It has been a long time in the making for Sha'Carri Richardson
When Richardson emerged on the national stage, winning the AAU Junior Olympics as a 16-year-old, it cemented her as the No.1 ranked sprint recruit in the U.S. class of 2018. And just a year into her freshman year at Louisiana State University in the U.S., her announcement to turn pro was no surprise.
The North American collegiate record holder had sped to a sub 10.8 seconds in the 100m and a sub 22 in the 200m on the same day, a first for women’s sprints. She had also posted an impressive 10.75 to win the 2019 NCAA.
As the fastest woman in the U.S., she was seen as a top contender in the global sprints, then teeming with Jamaican depth.
She was the immediate stand-out star who caused a stir. From her athletics exploits to her no-holes barred interviews, and her off-and-on track attention-grabbing displays.
The then 21-year-old was the favourite heading to Tokyo after her jaw-dropping 10.72 at a 2021 meet in Miami, the fastest then and the sixth fastest in history.
At the U.S. Olympic Trials, the biggest meet of her career, the Dallas native bursting with glamour and ready for the show. From her fiery orange dyed hair picked by her girlfriend, her trademark long fingernail extensions, to her extended elegant eyelashes, it was all about her mid-race surges and colourful victories right through the heats, semi's and finals.
“I just want the world to know that I am that girl. And every time I step to the track I’m going to do what me, my coach, my support team believe I can do,” she said in an interview with NBC.
The U.S. finally had a shot at a medal that had eluded it’s 100m female sprinters since Atlanta 1996.
“My presence in this track game making history happen, no need for a thank you,” she tweeted.
Her speed and looks complemented her larger-than-life attitude. Richardson even drew comparisons to legendary sprinter Florence Griffith-Joyner, Flo-jo. A flattering link to the women’s world record holder, who’s 10.49 dash from 1988 remains unmatched.
“I feel I have an influence from the greatest of them all: Flo-Jo. When she ran track, her stepping on the track, she brought a whole different scenery to the energy, to the atmosphere of track and field. And she didn’t let that stop her,” Richardson said in a 2019 Interview.
Sha'Carri Richardson's difficult past seasons
Then, in 2021, Richardson was suspended for a month after a positive marijuana test, which locked her out of Tokyo.
Last year, she suffered another setback to her budding career. At the 2022 World Championship Trials at Hayward Field, the sprinting sensation was to be one of the stars, but instead she missed a spot in both the 100m and 200m.
When she returned to racing at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic, she finished in last place in a star-studded line-up where Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah ran her personal best.
As expected, she wasn’t going to accept criticism lying down. The American, known never to be shy of talking about her performances and issues, like publicly correcting the wrong pronunciation of her name Sha-Carri as ‘Sha-Carei’, hailed her return to track as one of the ‘greatest comebacks’.
“I’m not done. You know what I’m capable of. Count me out if you want to,” she told NBC.
“I’m here to stay. I’m not done. I’m the sixth-fastest woman in this game ever and can’t nobody ever take that from me.”
Sha'Carri Richardson chasing the figures on and off track
A confidence boosting win over Jamaican Thompson-Herah in the dash at a World Athletics Continental Tour silver meet in Lucerne, Switzerland in August was her main 2022 season highlight.
And as the 2023 outdoor season shapes up, the 23-year-old wants to be the Team USA sprinter to watch and beat. The talented runner knows she needs the numbers to grab the headlines and keep the attention. She opened her season in a 4x100m relay race, where her team finished second, before thrilling fans who thronged to greet and watch her run an incredibly fast sub-11 seconds in the first round of 10.75 seconds at Miramar invitational.
In the final of the Continental Tour silver event, she celebrated way before the finish line as she sped past two of the podium finishers at the 2022 U.S. Championships, TeeTee Terry and Melissa Jefferson in 10.57 seconds, the fourth-fastest time in history.
But with a 4.1m tailwind, her timing was not considered for any official top lists. Anything over two-meters-per-second is deemed to be aided by the wind.
With that time, she could have stormed to gold at the Olympic final, where Thompson-Herah led a Jamaican sweep of medals in 10.61.
Her world leading time would also have placed her ahead of the reigning world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who ensured another podium sweep for Jamaica at the Hayward Field.
Sha'Carri Richardson still has no major medal to her name. She has brought a new vibe to the track and knows how to keep her fans engaged with her straight talk and strutting looks.
But ‘she is not satisfied yet’ and is ready to pick up on a journey she’d hoped would peak in Tokyo. She’s got off to the right start. Will 2023 be the season when she can finally be the dominant sprint star?
Sha’Carri Richardson will compete in the 200m at the Botswana Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone on April 29, 2023 and open her Diamond League campaign on May 5 in the 100m in Doha.
