Sha’Carri’s redemption
Sha’Carri Richardson won the Women’s 100m last week at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest. Many are hailing it as her redemption. I understand why, but I disagree.
They are hailing it as her redemption because of what happened at the 2020 Olympic Trials in Eugene, Oregon. Richardson won the Women’s 100m. And she did so with speed and flair not seen since Flo-Jo competed at the 1988 Olympic trials.
But then came Richardson’s incomprehensible suspension:
Sha’Carri Richardson, the American sprinter whose positive test result for marijuana cost her a spot in the women’s 100 meters at the Tokyo Olympics and ignited a debate about marijuana and sport, will miss the games entirely after being left off a relay team, American track officials announced Tuesday.
(The New York Times, July 6, 2021)
Richardson seemed as sure a bet for Olympic gold as Usain Bolt. But this suspension would’ve devastated any athlete who barely made the team. Yet she accepted her punishment with humility and grace that seemed positively serene.
Mind you, the USATF knew Richardson had readily admitted she only smoked a little weed to cope with her mother’s sudden death. She died on the eve of those Olympic Trials. Richardson’s sympathetic circumstance should have been a dispositive mitigating factor.
(For what it’s worth: weed, steroids, and all drugs should be decriminalized and unbanned.)
In any event, it seemed unconscionable that the USATF would cite that violation to deny Richardson a chance at Olympic glory. After all, that’s so often a once-in-a-lifetime chance. Indeed, the 2020 Tokyo Olympics could end up being that only chance.
That’s why the USATF left me stupefied when it did not even offer Richardson the consolation of anchoring the relay. After all, she qualified, and the USATF had the discretion to include her. I pleaded on her behalf on July 6, 2021, in the comments section at The Daily Beast, as follows:
This might make sense somewhere. But I’ll be damned if I know where. Sha’Carri did the crime. She vowed to do the time. She’s eligible for the relay. So, what are USATF officials trying to prove? What message do they think they’re sending? Frankly, this reeks of paternalism run amok!
But I pray Allyson Felix or another respected and influential member of Team USA will speak up on Sha’Carri’s behalf.
Reclamation
There’s no denying that Richardson was sensational last week. Not least because she defeated Jamaica’s two-time Olympic gold medalist, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and her heir apparent, Shericka Jackson.
That’s why I’m holding most of my cheers for the 2024 Paris Olympics. And, if there’s a God, Richardson will thrill us with performances that not only emulate the style Flo-Jo set at the 1988 Seoul Olympics, but break the records she set, too.
The USATA effectively took Tokyo gold from Richardson. Here’s to her reclaiming it in Paris.