Sha’Carri Richardson on anchoring the US women’s relay team to gold at Paris 2024: “I was going to leave it all on the track”
Richardson, a two-time medallist from Paris 2024, reflects on her historic run to seal the women's 4x100m gold for Team USA at the Stade de France.
Athletics
Sha’Carri Richardson has explained how she found the strength to power to relay gold at the Olympic Games Paris 2024.
The track star ran the decisive leg in the Women’s 4×100m for Team USA at the Stade de France, as the US secured the gold medal with a time of 41.78s.
Richardson told Essence, “It was a phenomenal moment, and I honestly was honoured just to do that, with ladies who trusted me to be their anchor and to help us all bring that gold back to the States. That energy just came from everything coming up until that final moment, that being the final race of my first Olympic Games.
“I felt like I was going to leave it all on the track - meaning my personality, how I was feeling, how I embraced the moment, as well as how I knew I’d fought to be in that moment too. I’m a very humble person. I really am. But I just know and trust the work that I have put in, the faith that I had.”
Sha'Carri Richardson: I had to protect my emotions
Richardson won both a gold and a silver medal at Paris 2024, with the former coming in her specialty, the women’s 100m, following an enthralling final battle against eventual Olympic champion Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia.
She explained, “I’ll honestly say my definition of success was the same before and after Paris—as well as before and after the World Championships in Budapest, when I won. I would definitely say that success is just you knowing you have put the work in, to receive what it is that you have invested in.”
The 24-year-old also opened up about protecting her peace around the pressures of the sporting limelight and how she looks after herself away from the track.
Richardson said, “I felt like I had to protect my emotions, because I had to protect everything else around me first. And so I definitely feel like now, emotional stability is not a defence. Emotional stability is understanding myself—and expressing myself in a way that it can be received.”