Sha’Carri Richardson just won her first Olympic gold medal. On August 9, the sprinter steered the U.S. women’s track and field team to victory in the 4×100 relay at the Paris Summer Games with a time of 41.78 seconds.
Following Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, and Gabby Thomas, Richardson anchored the team to gold, finishing the last stretch of the race with a 10.09-second leg. Despite the rain, Richardson surged past her competitors, beating Great Britain’s Daryll Neita by just 0.07 seconds. Great Britain came in second place, winning the silver, while Germany took home the bronze.
The victory marks 24-year-old Richardson’s second Olympic medal. She secured silver in the women’s 100-meter race on August 3 with a time of 10.87 seconds—0.22 seconds shy of her personal best. At the 2023 World Athletics Championships, Richardson set a new world record of 10.65 seconds and earned herself the title of “fastest woman in the world.”
While her Olympic dreams were put on hold after being disqualified from the 2020 Tokyo Olympics due to a failed drug test, Richardson has made quite the comeback and is leaving the Paris Games with two Olympic medals under her belt.
