Track star Sha’Carri Richardson as forthright as she is fast.
Hours after news broke she would be suspended from the U.S. Olympic team for one month due to a failed drug test, the 21-year-old, a heavy favorite to win gold in the 100 meters at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, came clean in a July 2 interview with the Today show.
“I want to take responsibility for my actions,” she shared of testing positive for marijuana, a violation of the 2021 World Anti-Doping Code. “I know what I did, I know what I’m supposed to do, I know what I’m allowed not to do, and I still made that decision.” The choice, explained the NCAA champion, came after learning mid-interview that her biological mom had passed. Hearing that news from a reporter one week before the Olympic trials in Oregon sent her into a state of “emotional panic.”
“It’s definitely triggering,” Sha’Carri adding that she was, “just blinded by emotions, blinded by bad news, blinded by just hurting.” Unable to hide herself on the eve of such a career-changing race, “at least in some type of way, I was trying to hide my pain.”
Sha’Carri first caught eyes across the nation on June 19 when she secured her spot on the U.S. Olympic Team after winning the women’s 100-meter dash in Eugene, Oregon.
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