Sha'Carri Richardson and the rest of Team USA are preparing to take the track for the first time at the 2024 Olympics. After missing out on the 2021 Tokyo Games due to a controversial drug test, the 24-year-old is ready for a shot at gold.
Before she was a global sensation, Richardson was making waves at the collegiate level. Track and field enthusiasts have been following the star since she was a top recruit in high school, and what she did on the NCAA track just goes to show why she's at the Olympics today.
A favorite in the women's 100m medal race, Richardson is known as one of the fastest women in the world. She looks to prove that in Paris while vying for her first Olympic medal.
Here's everything you need to know about Richardson's collegiate career before she turned professional.
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Where did Sha'Carri Richardson go to college?
Richardson graduated high school in 2018 as the top-ranked sprint recruit. She committed to LSU, where she spent one season before turning pro.
Though she only spent one year in Baton Rouge, Richardson set several records, including the NCAA record in the 100m dash. She ran a 10.75 at the NCAA DI Outdoor Track & Field Championships in 2019, which also was the ninth fastest women's 100m in world history, the U-20 women's 100m world record and the fifth-fastest women's 100m in U.S. history.
Sha'Carri Richardson shattered a 30 year collegiate record with a 10.75 in the 100m race at 2019 NCAA championships. Watch her incredible performance.
— Track Spice 🌶️ (@trackspice) March 16, 2024
🎥 credit - @NCAAChamps pic.twitter.com/fWNmsufAj9
She also broke the U-20 200m world record with a 22.17 second performance at the same event, the fifth-fastest time in NCAA history. Richardson became the first woman in history to run a sub 10.8 in the 100m and sub 22.2 in the 200m on the same day.
Richardson also won the Bowerman award—an annual track and field award given to the year's best student-athlete in American collegiate track and field. She was First Team All-American and SEC outdoor, the LSWA Freshman and Runner of the Year and the SEC Freshman Track Athlete of the Year, all in her only season at LSU.
MORE: Sha'Carri Richardson track schedule
Where is Sha'Carri Richardson from?
Richardson is from Dallas, Texas. There, she attended Carter High School, where she won three state titles.
Richardson was raised by her grandmother, Betty Harp, and her aunt, Shay Richardson. Her biological mother died a week before the 2020 U.S. Olympic Track and Field Trials.
MORE: Track and field results from 2024 Paris Olympics
How tall is Sha'Carri Richardson?
At 5-1, Richardson is among the shortest athletes at the Paris Games. In fact, her height is more reminiscent of a gymnast rather than a track star.
