Can Sha’carri Richardson actually win the World Championship?

Sha’carri Richardson is perhaps the most recognizable face in women’s sprinting right now. She was a freshman phenom at LSU, winning a national championship in the 100 meter dash, and broke the collegiate record when she did it. Just a few years later she became the Olympic Trials champion, but then things started to go downhill from there. The track and field community appears to have a love or hate relationship with her, but one thing is for certain. Sha’carri Richardson is one of the most talented sprinters in the world in 2023. So no matter how you feel about it, the question is legitimate, not can she win a World Championship, but will she win it? We already know that she can win against any American who lines up against her. However, up until this point her track record is teaching us that she doesn’t really have any legitimate competition. The only times that we’ve ever really seen her lose, is when the person who beat her was herself, and this is why.

Sha’carri is a track and field prodigy

Sha’carri Richardson burst onto the scene as the NCAA champion, but for track fans who were paying attention, she had been doing her thing, long before that. She ran the fastest recording time in the 100 meter dash, under all condition ins 2018, running 11.12 wind assisted. But that’s only telling half the story. Flotrack rates recruits across the sprinting events, and when she came out of high school, Sha’carri Richardson was number 1. Sha’carri was arguably the best all the way back then, so her talent was undeniable, even in a high school uniform. However at the college level, Sha’carri already showed that the only person who can get in her way is herself. She won the 100 meter dash, which is the biggest achievement of her brief college career. Yet during her freshman year indoor campaign, she struggled like most first year college students do. She didn’t make the 200 meter final at the SEC championships, and she false started in the 60 meter dash final. She actually only finished 7th in the 60 at the NCAA indoor meet. This is the same woman who broke the collegiate record in the 100 meter dash, just a few short months later, so you can’t really blame it on her competition, she was just flat out underachieving 

Sha’carri has already proved herself as a pro

Sha’carri figured out how to dominate by the end of the outdoor campaign, and by 2021 was the American champion in the 100 meter dash. She never showed what she could do in the Olympics due to a drug violation, and the remainder of 2021 was a train wreck to put it nicely. She lost races, most notoriously getting annihilated at the Prefontaine Classic. But what matters is she was running incredibly slow for someone that has proven to be so fast in each of those races. Honestly the track community forgot how good she actually is. We saw Sha’carri Richardson in the back of the race, and some even assumed that is where she might stay.

That could not be further from the truth, and now just 2 years later, she is back running at the peak of her powers. In 2023 Sha’carri had the fastest time in the world through the middle of June, and the only woman who has run faster did so by .01 of a second. Her 200 meter performance is also back where it belongs and she is top 5 in the world midway through 2023. She’s undefeated in the 100 on the calendar, and there’s still a lot of races left to run. You can call it a comeback, if it makes you feel better, but this is what she does. Sha’carri runs really fast, makes it look easy when she does it, and then celebrates harder than anyone this side of Usain Bolt.

The Bottom Line 

I can’t promise much of anything regarding Sha’carri Richardson’s world championship hopes. However, I can be confident that if Sha’carri wants to win badly enough, and can hold it all together to keep running like the woman she is capable of, almost nobody has ever proven that they can win against that version of herself.