Richardson returned to hardship after years of turmoil and growth, of opportunities stolen, wasted and taken. She came back already world champion. She left with a ticket for the Paris Olympics, smiling, calm and the fastest in the world. This girl has grown up a lot.
Three years after testing positive for marijuana and losing an Olympic spot, Richardson got another. She won the 100 meters Saturday night at Hayward Field in 10.71 seconds, 0.09 seconds ahead of runner-up Melissa Jefferson, the 2022 national champion, and 0.18 seconds better than Twanisha Terry. Richardson, Jefferson and Terry all train together under coach Dennis Mitchell, and now they will travel to Paris together.
Once he crossed the finish line, Richardson continued to sprint halfway down the track. She got on her knees and cried. She stood up and hugged Terry and Jefferson. The difficulties and triumphs of the past three years, she was certain, had led to this.
“Everything I’ve been through is everything I’ve been through to live this moment in this moment,” Richardson said. “So there is nothing I have experienced that has not designed me to sit here, before you.”
On the second night of trials, Ryan Crouser further cemented his position as the greatest shot putter of all time with his seventh national championship and Noah Lyles made a statement in his first 100-meter dash. But when Richardson steps on a track, it belongs to him.
As she walked to the starting line in the final, Richardson slapped herself in the chest and said to herself, “Hard work pays off.” » She settled into the blocks and went through her usual routine: she crossed his face, blew a kiss and looked up to the sky. Her starts had been shaky in the preliminary heats, but she came out of the blocks even with the peloton – which meant it was over. Richardson used his world-best top speed to open up a comfortable lead.
After a victory, Richardson often shouts or struts. Saturday evening, she held back tears as she crossed the finish line.
“This time around, I was still confident, still my normal, exciting self,” Richardson said. “But more than that, they were emotions of simple joy.”
Richardson, 24, emphasizes that she has distanced herself from her past, but reminders are inevitable. During her semifinal Saturday, Richardson smiled when the stadium announcer introduced her as “the reigning world champion.” In lane 9, Javianne Oliver was introduced as the 2021 US Trials Champion – Richardson’s performance was officially erased with her positive test. She described her victory as a “coming full circle moment.”
Even before the final, Richardson had shown equipment that no other American sprinter can access. In Friday’s first round, Richardson was the last sprinter out of the blocks. She still outpaced the entire field and finished in 10.88, the fastest time in any heat and a better time than two women all year. She also ran the fastest semifinal, despite another poor start, straightening her arms as the clock read 10.86.
Richardson had previously been on the U.S. Olympic team but had never been an Olympian. On the eve of the 2021 trials, a reporter revealed to Richardson that her biological mother had died. Richardson said she used marijuana to cope with the emotional aftermath. Despite changing attitudes in the United States, marijuana remains a banned substance under the World Anti-Doping Agency’s code. When a doping test came back positive after her victory, the suspension prevented her from competing in the Tokyo Games.
The troubles persisted. In her first race back, Richardson finished last on national television between commercials featuring her. At the 2022 national championships, Richardson inexplicably posted some of his slowest times, failed to escape in the first round and berated reporters in the mixed zone.
Having reached the nadir of her young career, Richardson has refocused and matured. She developed “just a better understanding of myself,” she said. She developed “a deeper love and care for the talent I was given.” Rather than getting angry at criticism, she took “my responsibility to the people who believe in me and support me.” She nourished his mind and body.
“I feel like all of these things have helped me grow and will continue to help me become the young woman that God intended and blessed to be,” Richardson said.
It started surfacing last summer. She won the national title in 2023, where she said: “I’m not back. I’m better.” In Budapest, she overcame a slow start in the semifinals and won the world championship from lane 9, eventually beating her dominant Jamaican rivals Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah with a personal best of 10.65 seconds.
She’s ready to race against the world’s best again, this time on a stage she’s never stepped on before with two teammates. Jefferson watched Richardson win the 2021 Trials final and figured she would be on the next Olympic team. She won the 2022 world championships, but failed to qualify for the 2023 world championships.
“I told myself then that this would be the last American team that I would not make in my career,” Jefferson said.
The miss convinced her to change coaches to Mitchell and train with Terry and Richardson. “These girls are like my sisters,” Jefferson. The trio trains with love, often the hard kind. They don’t hesitate to harshly criticize or push each other.
“We lean on each other, we rely on each other,” Terry said. “We tell others what it is, whether we want to hear it or not.”
Saturday evening, their work paid off.
“We didn’t alert the world,” Richardson said. “The world already knew it.”
Lyles will attempt to join Richardson as the megawatt 100-meter champion Sunday night. He made his trials debut in the first round of the 100 meters and showed his improved start, the ingredient that makes him a threat to win three gold medals in Paris. Lyles took the lead after 30 meters, and with 40 meters remaining, he was able to slow down, cross the line and still win in 9.92.
“I would definitely say it was the best I felt” during the first 100-yard lap, Lyles said. “I ran a little faster at the world championships last year, but I didn’t have what I was looking for. I was still looking. This year I feel like I have it all. I run it whenever I want. It happens.”
Lyles said he wanted to break 9.8 seconds on Sunday, which would be a personal best and the fastest time in the world this year. He operated in his typical style. His mother was sitting in the stands next to Snoop Dogg. Lyles entered the stadium with a silver briefcase containing the all-white uniform that matched the pearls threaded into his braids.
“I have joy when I’m here,” Lyles said. “That’s the kind of energy I’m trying to create.”
Crouser maintained his status as top favorite to win his third consecutive gold medal. He couldn’t match his feat from three years ago, when he first set the world record at the trials, but he still won with a throw of 22.84 meters (74 feet 11¼ inches). Joe Kovacs, the reigning silver medalist who had the misfortune of being in the same era as Crouser, once again finished second behind him.
Crouser completed an hour-long victory lap after a victory described as every bit as satisfying as his world record. Crouser underwent minor elbow surgery this spring and made technical changes to thrive through the pain.
“It gave me a lot more of a sigh of relief and just proved to me that I still had it,” Crouser said. “At 31, I’m not at the end of my career, but there is this constant injury and will I get that feeling again? I have proven to myself that if I keep moving forward, there are plenty of tough days along the way. Progress is far from linear. I just kept moving, kept moving and got through it. I bought myself six more weeks to continue improving.
In a semifinal of the men’s 1,500m, crowd favorite Eric Holt, a 29-year-old unsponsored runner, faded at the bottom of his heat and failed to advance to the final. Holt criticized his tactics in a slower round, making too many forward runs. But his Olympic trials aren’t over — he said he’ll compete in the 800.
“I feel like I’m the type of runner if I do one move, I do it well,” Holt said. “And I liked 50 Moves. I failed. It’s all execution. I ran a stupid race. I deserve not to qualify. It doesn’t matter, you know? I’m about to shock the world in an event that makes me feel better.