American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson, a 23-year-old sprinter, finished first at worlds Monday, capping a comeback two years after her marijuana controversy.
Two summers ago after Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, Richardson’s road to the Tokyo Games was roadblocked by a positive test for marijuana. Her name turned into a litmus test in a wide-ranging debate about the often-impenetrable anti-doping rulebook.
At the time, Richardson readily admitted to violating the rules, but a raucous debate — a lot of it hashed out on social media — ensued over whether marijuana, not a performance enhancer, really belonged on the banned list (It’s still there).
On Monday, her victory, in 10.65 seconds over Jamaicans Shericka Jackson and five-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, made good on the mantra she’s been reciting all year — and repeated yet again after her latest victory: “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.’”
For this victory, in a field featuring four of the eight fastest sprinters in history, she fought.
She fought when the vagaries of the track rulebook placed her in the so-called “Semifinal of Death,” paired against Jackson and Marie-Josée Ta Lou, who came in ranked fifth and eighth all-time, in a race where only the top two finishers were guaranteed spots in the final.
In that semifinal, Richardson got off to a wretched start and had to rally from seventh to finish third in 10.84. Her time was the fastest among all non-qualifiers, so she made it to the final.
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.
It made no difference. Even though she had the third-slowest start in the field, nobody got too far ahead. In the end, it was a race between her and Jackson. Jackson crossed and, unable to track what Richardson was doing so far on the outside, looked up to the scoreboard as though she might have won.
But Richardson beat her by .07 seconds, Fraser-Pryce by .12 and Ta Lou by .16. The 10.65 was a world-championships record — Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 35-year-old world record of 10.49 still stands — and matched Jackson for the best time in the world this year.
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.
The new champion looked stunned after she crossed the finish line. She blew a kiss toward the sky, cast her eyes on that beautiful scoreboard and walked toward the stands in a daze to accept the American flag and congratulations from Fraser-Pryce, Dina Asher-Smith of Britain and others.
“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.”
The Associated Press contributed to this article.