Sha'Carri Richardson's quest for redemption among top stories to follow at 2023 USA Track and Field Championships
Earning a spot on the track and field team that represents the United States at an Olympics or a World Championships event is sometimes harder than the global competition itself. There's so much star power, and so many young athletes who are carrying on the long tradition of American success in the sport.
When last we saw an American team, it was last year at the World Championships, where for the first time the U.S. was competing on home soil in Eugene, Oregon — and dominated to the tune of 33 medals (13 gold), more than three times more than any other country.
But as the USA Track and Field Championships begin Thursday in Eugene, someone who wasn't even on that team is arguably the athlete facing the highest expectations: Sha'Carri Richardson.
It's kind of wild to think that Richardson is still just 23 years old, but since bursting onto the scene in 2019 as a true freshman at LSU, where she won the NCAA title in the 100 meters in a collegiate-record 10.75 seconds, she has weathered some rough times.
Most famously, she was stripped of her national title and Tokyo Olympic berth in 2021 after testing positive for marijuana at the U.S. Trials. There was a furor around the one-month suspension, as Richardson said she used the substance, which has been legal in Oregon since 2015, after learning through a media member that her biological mother had died. It remains a banned substance under World Anti-Doping Association rules, and that superseded all.
Last year, Richardson's times and results were inconsistent, though arguably the low point was when she finished fifth in her opening heat of the 100 at the U.S. championships, not advancing to the finals for a chance at that Worlds team.
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This year, she has put together a strong season, and hopes to earn a spot on the American team that will compete at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest from Aug. 18-27. Richardson has raced the 100 at three meets this season and the 200 at two others, adding a 4x100-meter relay leg at the Texas Relays in her home state in early April as well.
She has been consistent in the 100, her marquee event — and consistently fast. She opened at the Miramar Invitational in Florida and ran 10.75 in the heats and a wind-aided 10.57 in the final, the third-fastest all-conditions time ever by a woman. At the Diamond League Doha meet in early May, she won in 10.76 seconds, beating World medalists Shericka Jackson of Jamaica and Dina Asher-Smith of the U.K. Richardson's last race was May 27 at the USATF Los Angeles Grand Prix, when she ran 10.90 seconds in her heat; she did scratch from the final in that meet, citing cramping.
With the opening round of the women's 100 set to begin Thursday at 7:04 p.m. ET, all eyes will be on Richardson, who is the fastest American woman and second-fastest in the world currently to see if she can make her first senior global championship team. She is also entered in the 200, where she has the second-fastest seed time behind Gabby Thomas.
Sha'Carri Richardson directing her voice at USA Track and Field
Richardson is taking a lead role off the track as well. American athletes have been publicly taking the USATF to task for days on a variety of topics, including:
The high costs associated with getting to and staying in such a small city like Eugene, particularly tough for the numerous elite-level athletes who don't have high-paying sponsorships, and the reality that Eugene doesn't have the infrastructure to host such large events and is a two-hour drive from the nearest major airport
The prize money, which barely offsets those travel costs ($8,000 for event winners, $6,000 for runners-up and $4,000 for bronze medalists)
The ban on athletes having their own media/content crew at the meet, which is a revenue stream for many
For the first time since 2006 the meet won't be aired live on NBC (it will be shown on CNBC and streamed on NBC platform Peacock and the USATF's own pay service), effectively taking a hammer to any momentum the sport gained last year after the stellar showing and full stands at Worlds.
Through her Instagram account, Richardson sent out the call for an athletes-only meeting to possibly unionize and get better from their federation. At one point she announced over 160 athletes had responded. Since American track and field athletes in particular operate as independent contractors, unionizing might be difficult, but they will be hard-pressed to get any wins without some semblance of solidarity.
What to watch at U.S. track and field championships this week
In the 100 this week, Richardson's top competition includes fellow LSU product Aleia Hobbs, 20-year-old rising star Tamari Davis, and high school phenom Shawnti Jackson, all of whom have run under 11 seconds this season.
The U.S. can bring three athletes in each event, though reigning World champs are also granted a berth, meaning in several events there will be four Americans competing.
As in the men's 100 and 200. Americans swept the medals in both last year, with Fred Kerley taking gold in the 100 and Noah Lyles winning the 200. Lyles told media this week that he has his sights set on the 100/200 double at the World Championships next month, noting that there hasn't been a man to win both in the same global meet since Usain Bolt in 2015.
"It's about time we have one — why not me?" Lyles said.
Kerley has gone faster in the event than Lyles this year, as have five other American men, but all Lyles has to do is place in the top three for a chance to go after that goal in Budapest.
Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone, the reigning world champion in the 400-meter hurdles, will run the 400 this week. She has a bye into the 400 hurdles at this year's Worlds, but McLaughlin-Levrone has been focused on the flat 400 this season, running a personal best 49.51 seconds in New York last month. She has said if she makes the team in the 400 she will decide with coach Bobby Kersee which event she will do at Worlds; the schedule in Budapest makes it essentially impossible to attempt the double.
Other athletes to keep an eye on this weekend:
Heptathlete Anna Hall: Multi-event competitors have to be great at a lot of events, but Hall takes things to a new level. On May 28 in Austria she posted the fifth-best hep score ever, 6988. In early June she ran 54.42 in the 400 hurdles, ninth-best in the world this year and 50.82 seconds in the open 400, the 30th-best in the world so far this year — and neither of those events are part of the heptathlon.
Shot putter Ryan Crouser: Crouser is a singular talent in his event. In a sport where records are usually broken by fractions of a second or mere centimeters, Crouser set the world record in June by 19 centimeters, or nearly 7.5 inches, then said he "didn't feel polished" afterward, indicating he believes he can go farther than that current best of 23.56 meters, or 77 feet, 3.5 inches.
110 hurdler and long jumper Cordell Tinch: Tinch led Division II Pittsburgh State to the men's team title in May with a day for the ages, winning the 110 hurdles, high jump and long jump. The Wisconsin native had left track for a few years, but returned earlier this year after a friend told him about Pittsburgh State and he has been on fire since. Two weeks ago at the Arkansas Grand Prix, he ran a world-leading 12.96 seconds, and his 8.16-meter season best in the long jump is fifth-best among American men.
Long jumper Tara Davis-Woodhall: Davis-Woodhall is another young star who can and should bring fans to the sport, and relishes the role. Known for her fondness for cowboy boots after her stint at Texas, her love story with now-husband and paralympic sprinter Hunter Woodhall and a generally effervescent personality, she also doesn't back down from a challenge — a social media back-and-forth with fellow American jumper Quanesha Burks on who was better has played out three times this season, with Davis-Woodhall besting Burks all three times. In Bermuda on May 22, Davis-Woodhall won on her final attempt of the competition with a wind-aided 7.11 meters (23-4), the farthest all-conditions jump in the world this year.
