Sha’Carri Richardson completed her redemption tale with silver, not gold.
Three years after being declared ineligible after a positive test for cannabis, Richardson finished in second at the 100-meter sprint with a 10.87-second time, with Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred winning the island nation’s first Olympic medal with a 10-72-second sprint for gold at the rain-soaked Stade de France.
Melissa Jefferson, Richardson’s training partner, came home in bronze at 10.92 seconds.
Alfred controlled the race from the middle stage and wasn’t challenged by Richardson, who had a middling start but made up time.
Two-time gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce surprisingly pulled out of the competition before her semifinal while Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won gold in Tokyo, did not compete at all.
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Richardson, who also won gold in the 100 meters at 2023 world championships, has long been building to Olympic glory, but that was delayed three years after she was declared ineligible for the sprint in 2021 following U.S. Trials.
That one-month suspension for cannabis use — which Richardson openly admitted, saying she was using it to cope with the pressure of Olympic qualifying and the recent death of her biological mother — was criticized from perches as high as the U.S. Presidency.
She couldn’t prove herself the fastest woman in the world, but a medal will do for redemption.