The athletics (or, as we call it stateside: track & field) portion of the 2024 Paris Games is in full swing, and Sha'Carri Richardson made her Olympics debut on the eye-catching purple track Friday.
Richardson kicked off her Paris experience with a 10.94-second, opening-heat win to qualify for Saturday's 100-meter semifinal.
Other notables who made it through to the next round in the 100 meters include Jamaica's two-time champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith from Ivory Coast with the day's fastest heat of 10.87 seconds, and Richardson's U.S. teammates Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry.
Richardson missed the Tokyo Games last time around because of a positive drug test (THC, found in cannabis, banned by the World Doping Federation), and is heralded as one of the fastest sprint runners on the U.S. Track & Field team.
Her absence was missed in the Tokyo Games in her main event, but it also underscored a weaker showing from the team all around. The U.S. brought home 26 athletics medals in Tokyo, down from the 32 they secured in Rio 2016 and the 28 they picked up in London 2012.
Her speed was the expectation and the reality at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials in June, when Richardson was the fastest female in the 100-meter race, securing her spot to run in Paris 2024.
Sha'Carri Richardson Fastest 100m Times on Record Before Paris Games
Here are her fastest 10 times recorded in the 100-meter race:
At the risk of stating the obvious, Richardson is fast. Fans can expect she'll compete for a medal on Saturday, and the first chance to see her will be on Friday in preliminary and first-round action. The big race takes place on Saturday, expected around 2:20 p.m. ET.
She will likely need to log a new personal record in order to medal, presuming her qualification for the final. In Tokyo, gold (Elaine Thompson-Herah, Jamacia) was faster than Richardson's PR, with silver and bronze last time around also rivaling some of Richardson's fastest times. Here's how the women's 100m played out the last time an Olympic medal was on the line:
Fellow American Teahna Daniels finished seventh in Tokyo in the event.
This article was originally published on www.si.com as Sha’Carri Richardson’s Fastest 100m Times As She Takes Step Closer to Gold in Paris.
