Richardson returned to testing after years of turmoil and development, opportunities stolen, wasted and seized. She returned already as world champion. She left with a ticket to the Paris Olympics, smiling, poised and the fastest runner in the world. That girl has grown up.
Three years later, when he tested positive for marijuana and lost his Olympic quota, Richardson earned another spot. She won the 100 meters Saturday night at Hayward Field in 10.71 seconds, 0.09 seconds ahead of second-place 2022 national champion Melissa Jefferson and 0.18 seconds better than Twinisha Terry. Richardson, Jefferson and Terry all train together under coach Dennis Mitchell, and now they will travel to Paris together.
Once she crossed the line, Richardson continued to run halfway around the track. She sat down on her knees and started crying. She stood up and hugged Terry and Jefferson. He was convinced that the sufferings and triumphs of the past three years had brought him there.
“Everything I’ve been through, it’s everything I’ve been through right now in this moment,” Richardson said. “So there’s nothing that I’ve been through that hasn’t prepared me to sit here in front of you.”
On the second night of the trials, Ryan Crouser further solidified his status as the greatest shot put thrower of all-time with his seventh national championship and Noah Lyles made a statement in his 100 m opener. But when Richardson steps onto the track, the track becomes his.
As she reached the starting line for the final, Richardson hugged herself and told herself, “Hard work pays off.” She settled down in the blocks and followed her usual routine: she crossed her face, blew a kiss and looked up to the sky. She had a weak start in the preliminary heats, but got out of the blocks even with the field – which meant it was over. Richardson used his world best top-end speed to take a comfortable lead.
After wins, Richardson often screams or struts. On Saturday night, she was holding back tears as she crossed the border.
“This time, it was still confident, still my exciting, normal self,” Richardson said. “But more than that, these were just feelings of joy.”
Richardson, 24, insists she has moved on from her past, but reminders of it are inevitable. In his semifinal heat on Saturday, Richardson smiled when the stadium announcer introduced him as the “reigning world champion.” In Lane 9, Xavien Oliver was introduced as the 2021 US Trials champion – Richardson’s performance was officially wiped out with his positive test. He described his victory as a “full-circle moment”.
Even before the final, Richardson showed off a gear that no other American runner could access. In Friday’s preliminary round, Richardson was the last runner out of the blocks. She still outpaced the entire field and finished in 10.88, the fastest time of any heat and only two women bettered it all year. Despite another poor start, she ran the fastest in her semi-final heat, clocking 10.86.
Richardson had previously made a US Olympic team but had never been an Olympian. On the eve of the 2021 trials, a reporter told Richardson that his biological mother had died. Richardson said he used marijuana to deal with the emotional fallout. Despite changing attitudes in the United States, marijuana remains a banned substance under the World Anti-Doping Agency code. When a drug test came back positive after his victory, the suspension ruled him out of the Tokyo Games.
There was turmoil. In her first race, Richardson finished last on national television amid commercials starring her. At the 2022 national championships, Richardson inexplicably had some of her slowest times, failing to survive the first round and warning reporters in the mixed field.
After reaching the peak of her young career, Richardson refocused and matured. “He developed a better understanding of himself,” she said. She “developed a deep love and deep care for the talent I was given.” Instead of being angry at critics, he accepted “my responsibility to the people who believe in me and support me.” He nourished his mind and body.
“I think all of those components have helped me grow, and they will continue to help me grow into the young woman that God has divined and blessed me to be,” Richardson said.
It began to emerge last summer. She reached the national title in 2023, where she declared: “I am not coming back. I’m doing better.” In Budapest, she overcame a slow start in the semi-finals and won the World Championships from Lane 9, ultimately defeating her major Jamaican rivals Shelley-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Ellen Thompson-Herah in a personal best of 10.65 seconds.
She’s ready to once again race against the world’s best players, this time on a stage she’s never stepped on before with two teammates. Jefferson watched Richardson win the 2021 trials final and told herself she would make the next Olympic team. She won the 2022, failing to qualify for the 2023 World Championships.
“I told myself then that this would be the last USA team I wouldn’t make in my career,” Jefferson said.
Miss convinces her to switch coaches to Mitchell and train with Terry and Richardson. “These girls, they’re like my sisters,” Jefferson. The three train lovingly, often of the rigorous kind. They don’t shy away from criticizing each other harshly or pushing each other.
“We depend on each other, rely on each other,” Terry said. “We tell others what it is, whether we want to hear it or not.”
On Saturday night, their work paid off.
“We didn’t tell the world about it,” Richardson said. “The world already knew.”
Lyles will attempt to join Richardson as fellow MW 100-meter champion Sunday night. He made his trials debut in the first round of the 100m and displayed his superior starts, which is the element that makes him a threat to win three gold medals in Paris. Lyles took the lead after 30 metres, and with 40 meters remaining he could slow down, cruise to the line and still win in 9.92.
“I would definitely say this is the best experience I’ve ever had in a 100-meter preliminary round,” Lyles said. “I ran a little faster at worlds last year, but I didn’t have what I was looking for. I was still searching for something. This year, I feel like I have it all. I am implementing it whenever I want. He’s coming.”
Lyles announced that he wanted to break the time of 9.8 seconds on Sunday, which would be his personal best and the fastest time in the world this year. He conducted with his characteristic flair. His mother was sitting in the stands next to Snoop Dogg. Lyles arrived at the stadium carrying a silver briefcase, wearing an all-white uniform that matched the pearls strung in her braids.
“I’m happy when I’m here,” Lyles said. “That’s the kind of energy I try to create.”
Crouser maintained his position as a favorite to win his third consecutive gold medal. He could not match his achievement of three years earlier, when he first set the world record at the trials, but still won with a throw of 22.84 m (74 ft 11¼ in). Joe Kovacs, the defending silver medalist, who had the misfortune of being at the same age as Crouser, once again finished second to him.
Crouser followed a victory lap with an hour-long victory lap that was described as just as satisfying as his world record throw. Crouser had minor elbow surgery this spring and made technical adjustments to move forward despite the pain.
“It was a huge sigh of relief and proved to myself that I’ve still got this,” Crouser said. “At 31, I’m not at the end of my career, but there are constant injuries and will I get that feeling back? I proved to myself that if I kept moving forward, there would be a lot of tough days along the way. Progress is nowhere linear. I just kept moving forward and kept moving forward and got through it. I bought myself six more weeks to get better.”
In the men’s 1,500 semifinals, crowd favorite Eric Holt, a 29-year-old non-sponsored runner, faded in his heat and failed to make the final. Holt made a mistake in his strategy in the slow heat and took too many runs towards the front. But his Olympic trials aren’t over — he said he’ll enter the 800.
“I think I’m that type of runner, if I have a move I do well,” Holt said. “And I had like 50 moves. I failed. It’s all execution. I ran stupidly. I am unqualified. Whatever, you know? I’m going to surprise the world in an event I think I’m better at.”
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