Get ready to hear the name Sha’Carri Richardson a lot over the next 10 days at the Paris 2024 Olympics.
The new purple track at the Stade de France offers the Team USA sprint star a chance to rewrite her Olympic story.
It started three years ago when she qualified for Tokyo 2020 with the fastest 100 metres women’s time at the U.S. trials, but it was a momentary triumph.
The athlete never made it to Japan as she was suspended for testing positive for THC (cannabis), a banned substance under World Anti-Doping Agency rules.
The fastest woman over the 100 metres this season is the Olympic gold medal favourite with a personal best of 10.65 seconds from last year’s World Championships, where she took double gold.
Her chances of gold have even increased in the past 48 hours, following Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson’s decision to race only the 200 metres.
Her proclamation that, ‘I’m not back, I’m better,’ encapsulates how she wants to reintroduce herself on the biggest stage.
In France, the U.S. star in the good company of her training mates and also first-time Olympians Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry, is seeking to reclaim an Olympic title no American has managed to win in nearly three decades.
The Women’s 100 metres preliminary rounds start at 8.35 tonight, round 1 at 9.50pm, the semi finals are at 5.50am Sunday and the final is at 7.20am Sunday.
[Source: olympics.com]
