Sha'Carri Richardson's 2023: The glitz and glamour season of the firebrand athlete

ATHLETICS Sha'Carri Richardson's 2023: The glitz and glamour season of the firebrand athlete

Abigael Wafula 21:00 - 24.12.2023

Sha'Carri Richardson's 2023 season was full of glitz and glamour and she was able to achieve a lot of milestones on and off the track.

The 2023 track season had a bucket load of success for Sha’Carri Richardson even off the track and it will surely remain to be one of her favourite campaigns.

The American was coming from a disappointing phase of life, after being banned for a doping offense and not being able to compete at the delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympic Games but things changed for the better in 2023.

Richardson ended her season in an impressive way, being regarded as the fastest woman in the world this season and also having a stadium named after her among other achievements.

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1) Victories

Richardson got people talking when she clocked a world-leading time at the USA Championships. However, that was not the first time she had won a race. She had won a few races before but the 100m race on home soil stunned the whole world and that is when she declared: “I’m not back, I’m better.”

The American started off her season with a win in the 100m at the Miramar Invitational. Richardson then headed to the Botswana Golden Grand Prix where she finished second before impressing fans at the Kip Keino Classic with a dominant win.

Richardson also won the 100m at the Diamond League Meeting in Doha, Qatar. At the USA National Championships, she declared that she was here to stay with an impressive win in the 100m and a second-place finish in the 200m.

After shinning on home soil, the 23-year-old went to the Diamond League Meeting in Chorzow, Poland, where she won the 100m.

At the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, she was on fire as she won the 100m in a world-leading time and propelled the 4x100m women’s relay team to victory. She then extended her winning streak to the Diamond League Meeting in Zurich.

2) Setbacks

Her first setback came at the Gyulai Memorial in Székesfehérvár, Hungary, where she fell to Julien Alfred, the latter running her first professional race. The difference appeared to be Alfred’s lightning start, but observers wondered if Richardson would be ready to face the world a month later.

Her other major setback was finishing third in the 200m at the World Championships in Budapest, Hungary. Shericka Jackson and Gabriel Thomas finished first and second respectively, with Jackson running the second-fastest time in history.

Richardson ended her season with a fourth-place finish at the Prefontaine Classic, the Diamond League Meeting final, something that shocked her fans who expected a better performance.

3) Off-track success

Richardson’s 2023 dominant exploits saw her being crowned the 2023 USATF Joyner-Kersee Female Athlete of the Year. The track at Kincaide Stadium in Dallas was also named after the 23-year-old. The Dallas Independent School District came to this decision owing to Richardson’s dominant exploits at the World Championships.

On top of that, November 10 was declared Sha’Carri Richardson Day in Dallas, something that the American was not expecting to happen.

4) Off-track setbacks

One of the greatest setbacks off the track was probably not making it to the final list of the five finalists for the Women’s World Athlete of the Year.

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