BUDAPEST, Hungary — Track and field can be a cruel game. No one has felt this more over the past two years than American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson. In an epic Monday night around the world, 23-year-old Dallas Carter won the world championships gold medal in the longest 100-meter race this side of the Olympics. Her victory, in 10.65 seconds over Jamaica's Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, five-time world champion, capped a two-year comeback and put into practice the mantra she has been chanting all year - and repeating again after his last victory. : "I'm not going back. I'm the best."Two summers ago, after the Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, a positive test for marijuana blocked Richardson's path to the Tokyo Games. His name has become a litmus test in major debates about race, justice, anti-drug policies, and ultimately, the sometimes thin line between right and wrong. For this victory, in a peloton with four of the eight fastest riders in history, he fought. He struggled when the rules of the track put him in the so-called "last half of death," joining Jackson and Marie-Josée Ta Lou, who placed fifth and eighth overall in the season, in a race where only the top two were better. Those who complete the violence are allowed to participate in the final. In the semi, Richardson started a poor start and climbed from seventh place to third in 10.84. His time was the fastest among all the non-qualifiers, so he qualified for the final. Only 70 minutes later, he was lined up at the end of the track on lane 9 for the gold sprint, as difficult as it was because he had no way to feel like the competitors - but he is everyone, of course - does. It didn't make a difference. Despite having the third-slowest start in the field, no one was ahead. In the end, it was a race between him and Jackson.
Jackson passed and, unable to match what Richardson was doing on the field so far, looked at the scoreboard as if he would win. But Richardson beat him by 0.07 seconds, Fraser-Pryce 0.12 and Ta Lou 0.16. The 10.65 was a world championship record - Florence Griffith-Joyner's 35-year-old world record of 10.49 still stands - and tied Jackson for the fastest time in the world this year. Although Richardson is 2-0 in Jackson in head-to-head battles this year, he's still 5-1 in the race — in part because he's a rookie world champion against a peloton of accumulated 38 Olympic and World Championships. prize among them. The new champion looked up after crossing the finish line. He blew a kiss to the sky, cast his eyes on the beautiful board, and went to the top of the free-standing to accept the American flag and salute Fraser-Pryce, Dina Asher-Smith of Grande -Britain, and again. Richardson looked set to become America's next sprint star when, with orange hair streaming down his back, he won the Trials two years ago. But the victory was quickly removed from the book after he tested positive for marijuana - a doping violation he immediately admitted, saying he was in a bad mood after the recent death of his mother. A heated debate - much of which has spread on social media - has arisen over marijuana, not as a performance enhancer, it's actually on the banned list (it's still there), but also but those who control him are eager to pursue it. young, bold, young, American (they say that everyone is subject to the same rules). Richardson fell for a moment but left the front. He finished ninth in his campaign suspension from the Préfontaine Classic in 2021. Last year, he did not make the World Championship team. Late last summer, Richardson bared his soul during a social media interview, encouraging people to find their true selves, just like he had. From the message he sent, he began to fix things on the road. But when he was asked when his big win came from something he borrowed, whether it was on the track or off, he didn't talk about technique, speed, or technique.
Related article - Spain vs. England
“I’m not back. I’m better.” “Richardson said she soaked it all in, surrounded herself with supporters, tried to drown out the rest. “I would say ‘never give up,’” she said when asked what message this victory sent. “Never allow media, never allow outsiders, never allow anything but yourself and your faith define who you are. I would say ‘Always fight. No matter what, fight.’” “All the heavy hitters were going to bring their ‘A’ game, so it helped me pull out my best ‘A’ game, as well,” Richardson said. “I’m next to living legends. It feels remarkable.” “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.’”
“You bring who you are onto the track. You bring your athlete into your life,” she said. “Just knowing that people know me not just as an athlete, but as a person. There is no separate, honestly. “So I’m glad I can display who I really am. Not my pain. Not my sadness. I’m happy I can sit here and be happy with home, and just knowing that it all paid off.”
