In her Olympic debut, Sha’Carri Richardson won the silver medal in the women’s 100 meters. Bringing home the gold was Julien Alfred out of Saint Lucia with a time of 10.72.
Richardson placed second with a 10.87 and her USA teammate, Melissa Jefferson’s time of 10.92 was good enough for bronze.
Racing one lane to the left of Richardson, and with rain puddling on the purple track in the Stade de France, Alfred got off to a fantastic start and beat Richardson by .15 seconds.
All week long, the field seemed to be clearing for Richardson, the reigning world champion who was making her Olympic debut after a positive test for marijuana cost her a chance to race three years ago in Tokyo.
In the semifinals, Richardson finished second, enough to snag one of the two guaranteed spots to be in the finals. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, one of her fiercest competitors, shockingly dropped out of the semifinal heat where she would have raced alongside Richardson.
The strongest contender left was Alfred, who hails from the Eastern Caribbean island with a population of around 180,000. She was the only Olympic entrant besides Richardson to break 10.8 this year — and when she and Richardson lined up next to each other in the semifinals, it was a preview of things to come.
Richardson will compete on the following days:
- Women’s 100m: Friday, Aug. 2, to Saturday, Aug. 3
- Women’s 200m: Sunday, Aug. 4, to Tuesday, Aug. 6
- Women’s 4x100m Relay (lineups not yet announced): Thursday, Aug. 8, to Friday, Aug. 9