Back to the old ways? Well, it looks like the anti-doping agencies are going hard on curbing unfair practices in the sport once again. Much needed? Or are they pushing it a little too further? Here’s where the divided opinion comes in! An array of athletes, from Usain Bolt to Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson, have time and again weighed in on the practice of repeated drug testing. But it turns out, Richardson is going through it practically again in 2025. And here’s her honest reaction!

Sha’Carri Richardson has sincerely abided by the drug testing demands off late. In 2024, while Richardson was in the heart of France for the Paris Olympics and was shooting for Nike, it was her turn to get tested as per the anti-doping schedule. And she showed up! Even previously, around April 2024, she had to go through a USADA drug test in the thick of the Easter holidays. While that itself may have been frustrating, she was summoned for another one just 48 hours later. But probably remembering her Tokyo doping debacle, she made herself available for both.

Now, fast forward to February 2025, and it turns out nothing has changed! In an Instagram story uploaded by Sha’Carri Richardson on February 17, the Paris Olympics 100m silver medalist added a boomerang of her posing outdoors in a Nike crop top. With a wide smile on her face, she penned the story with a caption that said it all. “Clean, Clean, Clean” she wrote, with a smile, connecting the dots that she may have cleared her doping tests. And yes, plural—tests.

As per another one of her latest updates, Sha’Carri Richardson publicized that she got herself drug tested thrice this month (February 2025). Yes, you heard that right! This information had come in via another Instagram story previously where Richardson was seen making the ‘peace’ sign with her fingers as she wrote, “Drug test 3 of this month [sparkle emoji.]” After that, when we see the latest February 17th boomerang she uploaded today, it leads us to think that she may have cleared all those 3 tests for sure!

But although Sha’Carri Richardson had a positive reaction, out-of-competition testing continues to be a painful process. Ask veterans like Usain Bolt, and they’ll confess! This form of testing is random, unannounced, and not the one any track athlete can escape. Especially with the USADA, once you enter the drug testing pool, you have to list down your whereabouts constantly. This means not being caught off-guard when the officials show up at your house for a random check. No wonder multiple athletes have spoken up.

Sha’Carri Richardson had said back in 2022, “USADA act more like a PO but they say they care about the sport.” And very recently, in the first week of February, Tara Davis-Woodhall, the Paris Olympics long jump champion, voiced her frustrations too. “As professional athletes, we have to be in a drug testing pool to make sure we’re not doping, which we’re not. And, um, we have to put in a calendar where we will be every day, every hour, including a 1-hour window where you will be home, where they can come and test you,” Tara admitted just how consuming this process could be on their YouTube channel.

Her husband, Hunter Woodhall, also did not hold back himself and highlighted in the same blog how it can invade the thin line that one draws between their personal and professional life. “Tara and I were watching Mr. Beast games last night—shout out to Jimmy—at 9:00 p.m. Someone knocks on our door. Who could be showing up at our house at 9:00 p.m.? Drug testing. Boom….” he said. And Noah Lyles? He was among the earliest ones to have joined this party in May 2024. “Just when you think the job is done, doping control comes take away the fun. It’s 1 a.m., I haven’t eaten, definitely haven’t slept, definitely haven’t showered. All I want is to go home,” shared Lyles on his Instagram story.

But the plague of frequent testing isn’t limited to USADA. Neither is this a contemporary issue. Per Usain Bolt’s recent stance, it looks like this has been happening for a long time.

Usain Bolt takes a stand on track’s persistent issue

Persistent drug testing seems to be a universal track and field issue. At least, that’s what it appears like after what Usain Bolt confessed when he appeared on ‘The Fix’ on YouTube this month (February 2025). The 100m and 200m world record holder Bolt confessed, “I was the most tested athlete ever. You can go on the website time, like we get tested constantly… One time, we got tested three times in one day… I am like ‘hey big man, come on,’ correspond with each other and get this thing right.”

Thrice in a day? Can you imagine that? Usain Bolt also clarifies the changes that have happened in this domain over time. He admitted that at first, the pattern was limited to just urine testing. But then it evolved and started expanding to blood tests and eventually a whole biological passport to trace the athlete’s whereabouts. So yes, the practices in this area have just intensified over time. And now, Sha’Carri Richardson is facing the same. But at least she’s doing so with a smile!