Scott Rabalais: In the end, Sha'Carri Richardson's quest for gold proved to be unstoppable (2024)

SAINT-DENIS, France —Nothing was going to stop Sha’Carri Richardson this time.

Not a suspension like the one that kept her out of the Tokyo Olympics.

Not a sudden rainstorm, which added a slick and treacherous layer to the 4x100-meter relay, an already slick and treacherous race.

Not a frantic baton exchange from Gabby Thomas as Richardson waited to run her anchor leg.

Not the runners that were slipping past her from all across Europe it seemed — Germany, Great Britain, France — as she began said anchor leg in a lower gear to make sure she possessed the baton.

Not starting from fourth place with little, if any momentum to help propel her to the front.

Not the silver medal in the women’s 100, her signature event, that had to leave the former LSU sprinter with just a sprinkle of self-doubt.

Richardson overcame all that, displaying the talent and determination that made her one of the most prominent and most pressurized athletes in the Paris Olympics from any country. In any sport.

She got the baton, made the jump to light speed and left the challengers from Great Britain and Germany and France with stars in their eyes.

Make that one star in their eyes. In a career already full of great moments, like the run that gave her the 100-meter title at last year’s world championships, this may have been Richardson’s greatest feat given what was at stake.

“I just remember trusting my third leg,” Richardson said, “trusting Gabby and knowing that she’s going to put this thing in my hand no matter what, and to leave my best on the track.”

Her best on the track? You could say that. Richardson left skid marks on the track as she did her best Road Runner vs. the Coyote impression, saying “Beep! Beep!” to the competition as she roared past them.

First, she looked back to Thomas in the exchange zone at the top of the straightway to make sure of the handoff. Then as she made a blur of the Olympic rings stamped on the purple track as she flew past, Richardson had time to look over and steal a glance at Germany’s Rebekka Haase and Britain’s Daryll Neita in her golden moment.

You could call Richardson’s look a glare. Afterward, she barked a few possible choice words as she looked into the stands as a soft rain fell like all of her challengers over that fierce final 100 meters.

Richardson, like many athletes, seems to be at her best when she’s got her skills honed to a sharp edge. Something like a perceived slight or perceived doubt, especially after she didn’t win the 100, to fuel her fire.

But even Richardson melted on the medal podium hours later, reduced to tears as the Stars and Stripes ascended a flagpole at the Stade de France and the “Star-Spangled Banner” played out over the French field.

Thomas, a graceful and skillful runner who won gold in the 200 here, knew what she had in Richardson as a teammate. Probably the only woman in the United States, maybe the world, who could have started that slow, with that deficit, and still dusted the competition.

“Obviously passing the baton to Sha’Carri is very special,” Thomas said. “She’s so fast. I felt very proud and grateful. We got the gold.”

The Americans won with a time of 41.78 seconds. Great Britain got the silver medal with a time of 41.85 and Germany took the bronze (41.97).

It’s the United States’ 17th medal in the 4x100 all-time and 12th gold. This event has been a treasure chest of precious metal for American women through the years.

But if there was any example needed of how volatile the 4x100 can be, it was there for the wide, wide world of sports to see moments later in the men’s version of the relay.

American lead runner Christian Coleman basically ran over second leg runner Kenny Bednarek as they had a car crash of an exchange that destroyed the U.S. men’s chances of an expected gold medal. They ended up not medaling at all, finishing seventh and eventually being disqualified because Coleman handed the baton to Bednarek outside the exchange zone.

Unbelievably, the U.S. men haven’t medaled in the 4x100 since a silver in Athens in 2004, their only medal won in that span being stripped after the 2012 London Games because of a doping conviction. That’s an unconscionable drought for a country that has the track and field talent and resources that the United States does.

Again, it’s a prime example of how the 4x100 can leave you going “quel dommage” (what a pity). That’s how close Richardson was to going home from Paris without a gold medal. Without a medal at all.

“The moment that I will describe is realizing that when we won,” Richardson said. “It was a phenomenal feeling for all of us.”

One wonders what was the overriding feeling that Richardson had as the gold medal slipped around her neck? Pride? Relief? Maybe it was being hit with a flashback to a race back home in Dallas as a child: This is for the gold medal.

Richardson doesn’t have to wait, or wonder, any longer. She is an Olympic gold medalist for life. What everyone predicted she would do, what she was expected to do, she did.

Maybe it took her one more race to get there, but the color of the medal is still the same.