Sha'Carri Richardson to race all 3 Olympic 100m medalists at Prefontaine Classic
It may not be at the Olympics, but Sha'Carri Richardson will get the chance to run the 100 meters against the fastest women in the world.
Richardson, who couldn't take part in the 100 at the Tokyo Olympics due to a failed drug test, will run the 100 at next week's Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon, according to the Wall Street Journal. And she'll face the best in the world: Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson, the Jamaican trio who swept the 100m medal stand at the Tokyo Olympics, will also be running that race.
Richardson's story was one of the most dramatic leading up to the Olympics. She burst onto the scene in June after posting a blazing 10.86 in the 100 at the U.S. Olympic Trials. She later tested positive for marijuana, which invalidated her trials results. While marijuana is legal in numerous states — including Oregon, where the trials took place — it's still on the World Anti-Doping Agency's list of banned substances.
Richardson and the U.S. Doping Agency agreed to a one-month suspension, and Richardson would not participate in the Olympics. Even though her suspension ended before the 100m was run in Tokyo, her time at trials had been invalidated, so she wasn't able to make the track team in that event. After her positive test was made public, Richardson revealed that she had smoked marijuana after her biological mother died, spurring a conversation about whether marijuana should still be a banned substance.
More Olympic racers
Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson won't be the only recent Olympians running the race and turning the Prefontaine Classic into a "what might have been" event. Three other runners from the 100m final in Tokyo will also be racing: fourth-place finisher Marie-Josee Ta Lou of the Ivory Coast, sixth-place finisher Mujinga Kambundji of Switzerland and seventh-place finisher Teahna Daniels of the United States.
Despite the presence of six recent Olympians, Richardson's agent told the Wall Street Journal that she's treating this like any other race.
“Sha’Carri is focused on running a good race since she last competed at the US Olympic Trials,” her agent, Renaldo Nehemiah, said in an email to The Wall Street Journal. “She will be focused on executing her race to the best of her ability regardless of who is in the race.”
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