Sha’Carri Richardson takes second in women’s 100-meter as Julien Alfred wins first ever gold for Saint Lucia

PARIS — Since qualifying for the Olympics in 2021 only to be barred from competing, Sha’Carri Richardson had waited three years for the second chance that arrived Saturday night.

Separated, finally, from the Olympic gold medal she has long pursued by just 100 meters of a purple track Saturday evening inside Stade de France, the American star coiled into the blocks amid falling rain and waited to reassert her title as the fastest woman in the world.

Yet right from the gun, Richardson was forced to play catch-up to Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred, who left no doubt on her way to a gold medal in her Olympic debut in 10.72 seconds. It marks the first medal in any sport in the country’s Olympic history. 

Richardson earned silver in 10.87 with Melissa Jefferson, one of her two training partners in the final, earning bronze for the U.S. in 10.92.

It was a repeat of the semifinal earlier Saturday night when Alfred also beat Richardson convincingly. Richardson was hampered in both races by her start. 

When Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson, a formidable competitor who owned the season’s fifth-fastest time, dropped out of the 100-meter days before the Olympics began, intent on running only the 200, it created what appeared to be a golden opportunity for Richardson, the reigning world champion, in her Olympic debut. Her time of 10.71 from June’s U.S. Olympic Trials stood as the world’s fastest this year by seven-hundredths of a second — and the runner closest to Richardson didn’t even qualify for Paris. 

Then, in Saturday evening’s semifinal, Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith, a decorated veteran, failed to qualify for the final and, in a stunning move, two-time Olympic 100-meter champion Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce did not start her own semifinal. The combination of Jackson, Fraser-Pryce and Asher-Smith’s absences removed runners who were not only one of the race’s fastest but most experienced, opening the door for a group of first-time Olympians including Richardson, Jefferson, Twanisha Terry — who train together in Clermont, Fla. — and Alfred. Yet if that seemed to increase Richardson’s title opportunity, her own semifinal was a reminder it did not guarantee gold, after Alfred’s victory.

The win by Alfred, a supremely talented NCAA champion, was a surprise only because since the start of the 2023 season, Richardson had proven not only a uniquely fast talent but a remarkably consistent one, as well.

On her way to the 2023 100-meter world championship, she ran five of the year’s 10-fastest times. This year, she owned three of the top eight. It was a remarkable turnaround after an unpredictable two-year stretch that began when Richardson qualified for the 2021 Olympics by winning the U.S. title, only for her ticket to Tokyo nullified by a positive test for marijuana. In 2022, she then failed to make even the final of the U.S. championships after running nearly a half-second slower than the year prior.