The past five years of Richardson’s life have been the stuff of biopics. In 2019, as a college freshman, she broke the collegiate record in the 100-meter dash, clocking a time of 10.75 seconds—the fastest 100-meter dash that any woman anywhere had run in two years. But, as plenty of noted at the time, Richardson’s time would have been even faster had she not begun celebrating her victory before crossing the finish line. The screenwriter who pens the eventual Sha’Carri Richardson movie will likely use this incident as a bit of thematic foreshadowing: a spectacular athlete who can only be slowed by her own choices.
In 2021, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, Richardson won the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.86 seconds. She was all set to go to Tokyo—and, then … she didn’t. After testing positive for marijuana usage, Richardson was hit with a one-month suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency that would end days after the Tokyo Olympics began. Unlike some other Olympic contenders who have failed pre-Games drug tests, Richardson chose not to appeal her suspension. She stayed home and watched in 2021 as Jamaica swept the women’s 100-meter podium.
If you were paying attention to the Olympics in 2021, then you’ll surely remember that Richardson’s suspension made a lot of very angry—and not without reason. Marijuana is hardly a performance-enhancing drug, which raised questions why the USADA was testing for it at all. What’s more, marijuana is legal in many American states—including Oregon, the state in which Richardson used it. While the track star admitted to using marijuana during the Olympic Trials, she said that she had done so after learning that her biological mother had recently died. (Richardson was raised by her grandmother and her aunt.)
“I want to take responsibility for my actions. … I’m not looking for an excuse,” Richardson said at the time, even as countless Twitter moralists seemed to take self-righteous joy in her absence. But she also made clear that the suspension was just a speed bump in her Olympics journey. “This will be the last time the Olympics don’t see Sha’Carri Richardson,” she said. “… I have plenty of Games left in me to compete in, and I have plenty of talent that backs me up.”
The sprinter has spent much of the past three years living up to her own prediction. In 2023, she won the world championship in the 100-meter dash with a time of 10.65 seconds. This June, at the U.S. Olympic Trials, she finished first in the 100-meter dash once again, besting her 2021 mark by 0.15 seconds and punching her ticket to Paris with that year’s-fastest 10.71. She entered Saturday as both the statistical and the sentimental favorite for Olympic gold.
Julien Alfred, Saturday’s victor, has beaten Richardson before. She comes from Saint Lucia, which boasts a population of 180,000 —or roughly the same population as Chattanooga, Tennessee. The island nation is hardly an international sporting powerhouse—which makes Alfred’s gold not just surprising, but meaningful, in a way that’s hard for Americans to understand. Saturday’s 100-meter dash final was shown on a big outdoor screen in Saint Lucia, and when Alfred crossed the finish line, the crowd erupted as if they had all just won the lottery. At that moment, it felt like Alfred’s victory wasn’t just Alfred’s victory—it was all of Saint Lucia’s victory.
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