BUDAPEST, Hungary (AP) — Track, and fame, can be brutal games. Nobody felt that more over the past two years than American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson.
On a sultry Monday night a half-world away from where her problems began, the 23-year-old earned a gold medal at world championships in the biggest 100-meter race this side of the Olympics.
Richardson said she soaked it all in, surrounded herself with supporters, tried to drown out the rest. A mere 70 minutes later, she was lining up on the edge of the track in Lane 9 for the gold-medal sprint, as tough a spot as there is because there’s no way to feel how the top contenders — or anyone, really — is doing.
Though Richardson came in 2-0 against Jackson in head-to-head matchups this year, she was still a 5-1 underdog in the race — in part because she was a rookie at worlds going against a field that had amassed 38 Olympic and world-championship medals between them. Richardson appeared ready to become America’s next sprint star when, with her orange hair flowing behind her, she cruised to a win at trials two years ago. But that victory quickly came off the books after she tested positive for marijuana — a doping violation she readily admitted, saying she was in a bad place after the recent death of her mom.
“A year ago, she was in no-man's land, as far as not making the team,” said her agent, former hurdler Renaldo Nehemiah. “And then, to come back and finally find her happy place, which is on the track, and to not try to compete with any kind of negative influences out there. I personally told her, ‘You’ll never win that battle on your best day.'”
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