Sha’Carri Richardson wins the women’s 100 meter dash final during day two of the 2024 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials at Hayward Field on June 22, 2024 in Eugene, Oregon.
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Sha’Carri Richardson qualified for the Paris Olympics with a time of 10.71 seconds in the 100m final at the U.S. Track and Field Trials on Saturday, the best time in the world this year.
Richardson started beating her chest a few steps before crossing the finish line, celebrating a 0.09-second victory over her training partner Melissa Jefferson, the 2022 U.S. champion. Tewanisha Terry, another sprinter in coach Dennis Mitchell’s camp, finished third and earned a spot on the women’s 100m team.
Richardson, whose victory at the 2021 Olympic trials was wiped out by a positive marijuana test, is the early favorite to face Jefferson, which is expected to begin on August 2 when Jamaica faces Paris.
“I feel honored,” Richardson said. “I feel like every chapter of my life has prepared me for this moment.”
A victory in France would give Richardson an Olympic gold medal, just behind the one she won at last year’s world championships, making her a sprinter to watch in 2024.
Earlier on Saturday, defending world champion Noah Lyles ran a time of 9.92 in the 100m, the fastest time in the first round of men’s qualifying.
Richardson paints herself as a new, better, more up-to-date person rather than the one lighting up Hayward Field in 2021 — with her flowing orange hair looking like a breakthrough for the sport star.
All this flash belies her struggle with depression caused by her mother’s death.
She stayed home during the Olympics and began working on herself both on and off the court. She won the national title last year and declared “I’m not back, I’m better” and then proved it by winning the world title a month later.
