Sha’Carri Richardson is officially an Olympic champion.
As the anchor leg for the Team USA women’s 4x100m relay squad, Richardson handled a semi-awkward baton pass from 200m gold medalist Gabby Thomas and absolutely exploded down the stretch Friday night.
The Texan was like an unleashed force of nature and left every other sprinter trailing in her wake as she crossed the finish line.
Once she had the baton in hand, you could almost hear the sonic boom.
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Although the US women were not in the lead at the time of the third changeover, Richardson made up so much ground so quickly that she even had enough time to glance to her right before crossing the finish to make sure she was obliterating her competition.
Adding even more drama and unpredictability to the proceedings, the skies over the Stade de France opened up just before the final got underway and the race took place in a driving rainstorm.
In the end, Richardson pulled off the most perfect performance in the rain since Prince’s Super Bowl halftime show.
Team USA finished with a gold medal-winning time of 41.78. While they were only .07 seconds ahead of silver medalists Great Britain, Richardson made that .07 look like a runaway.
For a sprinter who overcame the trauma of being disqualified from the Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana, the victory was sweet vindication.
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Just as importantly, it was also uplifting and heartwarming for her family. Despite a fear of flying, Richardson’s grandmother is reported to have made the trip to Paris for the Summer Olympics.
In 2021, Betty Harp aka “Big Momma” was there for a giant hug when Richardson thought she had qualified for the Tokyo Games and now it appears she’s there to see her granddaughter receive her first Olympic gold medal too.
Even with the sudden cloudburst making the weather less than ideal, it was an absolutely perfect Olympic moment.
Team USA was a veritable all-star team of sprinters. Between Richardson’s silver medal in the 100m, leadoff leg Melissa Jefferson’s bronze in the same event, and Thomas’ gold in the 200m, all three Olympic medals were represented on the track.
Add in second leg Twanisha Terry and now the four women have gold thanks to Richardson writing an ending to her Olympic story that was as brilliant as the final leg she just ran.
