‘I’m not back, I’m better’: Sha’Carri Richardson’s path to Paris

PARIS — Moments after her final 100-meter run at the 2024 U.S. track and field Olympic trials earlier this summer, Sha’Carri Richardson delivered a thoughtful self-reflection that perfectly encapsulated her current outlook on life and competition.

“Everything I’ve been through is everything I have been through to be in this moment right now,” Richardson said.

Specifically, she was referring to the circumstances — the good, the bad, the happy, the sad — that have led up to the momentous opportunity that now sits directly before her.

For the first time in Richardson’s promising young career, the 24-year-old is appearing at the Summer Games. She’ll make her Olympic debut here in the famed “City of Light,” just three years after heartache forced her to miss the Games in Tokyo.

While that missed opportunity is undoubtedly a piece of Richardson’s story, it isn’t the only part of it. She owns one of the most impressive redemption arcs of any Olympian entering these Games.

Richardson is convinced the woman she has become away from the track in the past three years has created every bit of the dominant force she has been on it.

Before she settles into the starting blocks at Stade de France for the 100-meter preliminaries Aug. 1, let’s revisit just how she got here:

Sport June 19, 2021: Richardson appears Tokyo-bound in 100m

With a winning time of 10.86 seconds in the 100-meter finals at trials, Richardson was poised to be heading to the Tokyo Olympics. The victory made the 21-year-old the youngest woman to win the 100 meters at trials since Alice Brown in 1980.

Already a star from her brief time at LSU, Richardson was headed for mega-stardom with the win. A likely gold medal contender in Tokyo, she was about to see the sky become limitless.

Sport July 1, 2021: Richardson’s positive test ends Olympic dreams

Richardson was supposed to have already had her Olympic dreams fulfilled.

But just days after an emphatic, gold medal-winning performance at the U.S. trials ahead of the Tokyo Summer Games, she was suspended.

A positive test for marijuana while she was at the trials forced Team USA and the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency to adhere to the monthlong ban outlined in the World Anti-Doping Agency’s rules. The suspension kept her from competing in the Olympics. And although she could have been eligible in time for relay events, Richardson was kept out of the American relay pool, and thus missed the entire Games.

Amid several weeks of criticism online, Richardson posted a tweet with the simple message: “I am human.”

I am human

— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itsshacarri) July 1, 2021

In an interview on NBC’s “Today” show, she apologized for having ingested cannabis while at the U.S. trials, revealing she was in emotional pain after finding out from a reporter during a prerace interview that her biological mother had recently died.

Sha’Carri Richardson (@itskerrii) joins us live for an exclusive interview to discuss the positive marijuana test that’s put her Olympic future in limbo. pic.twitter.com/iVBp3zhvja

— TODAY (@TODAYshow) July 2, 2021

Richardson was largely raised by her grandmother Betty Harp, and has an aunt she often refers to as “Mom.”

Sport July 7, 2023: ‘I’m not back, I’m better’

Before running the race of her life in Budapest, Hungary, Richardson provided one of the most memorable moments of her redemption journey when she put her sport on notice the month prior in Eugene, Oregon.

Competing in the U.S. championships — one of her first major events since the summer of 2021 — Richardson was back under the glare of global attention. After posting a world-leading 10.71-second 100-meter time in a preliminary the day before, she was out to prove the time was no fluke.

As she stood on the start line hearing her name introduced to the Hayward Field crowd, Richardson looked into the camera in front of her and snatched off the orange wig she was wearing. When she flipped it behind her, she revealed a long blonde braid and a braided star design on one side of her head. On the broadcast, announcers commented: “She means business.”

Indeed, she did. While she didn’t outpace her previous world-leading time, those 10.82 seconds were enough for a gold medal and a spot in the world championships a month later.

Following the race, Richardson spoke with NBC’s broadcast crew about her win. During the interview, she provided a sound bite that has since been played countless times on social media.

“I’m ready mentally, physically and emotionally,” Richardson said. “And I’m here to stay.

“I’m not back, I’m better.”

Sport Aug. 21, 2023: Richardson sets personal best in 100m

Five days before celebrating a team victory, Richardson had her own moment in the sun at the world championships.

With a pair of Jamaican Olympic veterans lined up against her in the 100-meter final, the odds of winning weren’t initially in Richardson’s favor. Unlike her experienced counterparts, she was competing in her first major international championships.

Then, when the race started, Richardson’s chances at gold took an even bigger hit. Shericka Jackson and her countrywoman Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce quickly dashed out front.

But halfway through the race, Richardson propelled forward, rising from the back of the pack. As the leaders neared the line, Richardson suddenly snuck just ahead, claiming the victory and doing so in an incredible time.

The 10.65 seconds was a personal best. Only four women in the sport’s history, including Fraser-Pryce, have run faster.

For a few minutes after the race, Richardson walked around one end of the track in a daze. With an American flag draped around her, it looked like she couldn’t believe what had just happened.

“Congrats to Sha’Carri and Shericka, it was really a fantastic race,” Fraser-Pryce later said. “Last year, I ran the 100 in a championship record, and it took a championship record [in this race]. So that’s really remarkable.”

Sport Aug. 26, 2023: Richardson anchors gold medal relay

Viewers of the new Netflix series “Sprint” have likely noticed the long-standing rivalry between the U.S. and Jamaica has hit a new crescendo. Richardson’s presence on the world stage this past year is a big reason.

Paris is already abuzz about what might happen between the two countries in the women’s 4×100 relay at the Olympics, thanks to what took place at the world championships 11 months prior.

Jamaica raced to an early lead after the first two legs of the relay in Budapest. But that changed after Gabby Thomas snatched the lead for the Americans around the third-leg back curve. From then on, the baton was all Richardson’s.

All Richardson had to do was sprint at a commanding, comfortable speed, hold the lead and stave off the world championships’ 200-meter winner from Jamaica, Shericka Jackson. Not an easy task, but one Richardson accomplished.

Letting out a fierce yell as she crossed the line, long braids flying behind her, Richardson and her American teammates capped a championship-record 41.03-second showing. That impressive win put a massive target on their backs ahead of Paris.

Sport Nov. 10, 2023: Dallas track named on ‘Sha’Carri Richardson Day’

Before she made it to LSU, track publications called Richardson the highest-rated high school girls sprinter in the country. She reached that acclaim in her hometown of Dallas, at Carter High School, where she won multiple Texas state championships, including in an 11.28-second 100-meter dash her junior year.

To recognize her for her high school exploits, and to acknowledge her accomplishments in the six years since, the city school board unanimously voted to put Richardson’s name on the track where she once trained.

— LSU Track & Field (@LSUTrackField) November 10, 2023

“Sha’Carri Richardson Track” now encircles the football field at the 15,000-seat John Kincaide Stadium.

The naming ceremony came on what was proclaimed “Sha’Carri Richardson Day” in Dallas. It was a fete befitting a hometown hero.

Sport December 2023: Richardson re-signs with Nike

When Richardson decided to become a pro track athlete in 2019 after a dominant freshman season at LSU, she signed an endorsement deal with Nike.

After all, before she even turned 20 years old, she was a college national champion, three-time SEC champ and four-time All-America selection. Her future was glistening with gold.

The shoe brand also saw what the track world was noticing: that with all of Richardson’s success came her flair, personality and sense of swag. In short, her Florence Griffith Joyner-esque aesthetic was marketable.

With their preexisting relationship cemented, Nike and Richardson agreed in December to a reported five-year, $20 million deal that put her in rarified air among sponsored track athletes.

Given the levels of vitriol that had been spewed in Richardson’s direction in the immediate aftermath of her missed opportunity in 2021, the massive deal appeared from the outside to be a big risk for the company. But when Richardson finishes races like she has of late, and when she so genuinely and openly talks about growing and maturing, everyone connected to her seems to be coming out a winner.

Sport June 21, 2024: Richardson’s early signal at trials

It would come as no surprise when Richardson thoroughly dominated the 100-meter field in the final at trials, winning by multiple strides. That’s because of what she did during her preliminary heat the day before, rallying late for an impressive win even after exploding awkwardly out of the starting blocks and then wobbling from side to side in her lane.

Another sub-10.9-second finish — adding to the litany of similarly low times she has had since the start of 2023 — was an early indication that the trials would have a favorable outcome for her.

She needed a good result, too. After all, she arrived in Eugene as one of the faces of American Olympic hopefuls. Richardson’s visage was splashed on posters that greeted fans when they entered the stadium grounds, and she had been a heavy part of promotional campaigns on social media and television. Her fun interview with rapper Cardi B while getting their nails done accentuated the hype preceding Richardson’s trials appearance.

Celebrating our gifts 🥰 @iamcardib 💅🏾✨ pic.twitter.com/rYTKOEIr4D

— Sha’Carri Richardson (@itsshacarri) June 15, 2024

So much went right for Richardson throughout the week in Oregon. The only thing that didn’t was her fourth-place finish in the 200 meters later in the trials. By not cracking the top three, she won’t compete in that event in Paris.

Sport June 22, 2024: Richardson wins 100m, heads to Paris

Richardson punched her ticket to Paris when she bolted across the finish line in a staggering 10.71 seconds to win the women’s 100-meter final at the U.S. Olympic trials in Oregon. She’s bringing her training teammates to Paris, too, as Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry finished just behind her in second and third, respectively.

Her joy was undeniable as she bound into the Hayward Field stands to embrace family members including Harp, the grandmother Richardson affectionately calls “Big Momma.” A trying three years had culminated in one full-circle moment of deserved revelry.

“I’ve grown,” Richardson told reporters, “[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.

“I feel like all of those components have helped me grow, and will continue to help me grow into the young lady that I have been divined and by God been blessed to be.”