The 100m finals on the rain-soaked tracks of Stade de France saw Sha’Carri Richardson being restricted to a silver. However, similar conditions at the Letzigrund Stadium—another wet track and a 100m showdown—became part of Richardson’s comeback story. Just days after the Paris Olympics, Richardson returned to Zurich’s Weltklasse Diamond League and delivered a golden finish. Clocking in at 10.84 seconds, Richardson settled the scores with Julien Alfred, who finished in second place for a change.

Julien Alfred finished with a time of 10.88 seconds, missing the top spot by just 0.04 seconds at the Diamond League. This result marked quite a change from Paris, where Alfred claimed to the title of ‘Olympic champion’ with a time of 10.72 seconds, while Richardson’s sluggish start left her just shy of the gold, finishing in 10.87 seconds. But today, Richardson redeemed herself against her newest Saint Lucian rival. However, her fans remain unsatisfied, pointing out Richardson’s recurring limitations that make her victory appear to be a fluke.

Sha’Carri Richardson’s redemption moment

For the first time after the Paris Olympics, Sha’Carri Richardson went up against Julien Alfred. As promised, the lane 5 sprinter, Richardson crossed the finish line first. Post which she said, “To me it was an amazing race…” Referring to the last 20 meters in particular, the American noted, “I am training and executing because I know the race is not going to take care of itself.” She is aware of the neck-to-neck competition and strives to ensure that she’s on the winning end.

The results, decided by a photo finish barely had a few hundred seconds between them. But it was visible that Sha’Carri Richardson was extremely slow off the blocks. Thus, even though she accelerated later, she had to come from behind to clinch the win. And the track and field fans who noted this were riled up. Taking to the comments, they expressed their dissatisfaction.

Track and Field fans question Richardson’s recurrent limitation

Back in Paris, Sha’Carri Richardson’s 0.221s reaction time was the slowest of all in the finals. On the other hand, Julien Alfred was off to a quick start in 0.144 seconds. And again this time, witnessing how Richardson repeated the same in the first few meters, her fans were fuming. One of them mentioned, “I love sha’carri but cmon now. She’s not running that again until she improves her starts. She’s been with dennis for how long?? And her starts are still horrible.. she shouldn’t be playing catch up every race.”

One of the fans questioned, “Why is she so slow out the blocks lol.“ Throughout most of the race, Richardson’s late reaction time left her trailing behind Julien Alfred and Dina Asher-Smith. This pattern was also evident at the Olympics, where her reaction times were a noticeable drawback. In the heats, her reaction time was 0.200 seconds (69th out of 72), in the semifinals, it was 0.191 seconds (24th out of 26), and in the finals, it was 0.221 seconds (8th out of 8). Thus another fan adds, “She really needs to perfect her starts because that’s exactly what failed her in the Olympics.”

Sha’Carri Richardson has the potential to go faster and her fans know that. 10.71 seconds, she has the 100m world lead time this year. Moreover, she is the reigning world champion from Budapest, where she clocked 10.65 seconds to win gold. Thus, one of the supporters chimes in, “Richardson will break the world record if she can fix this vexing, ridiculously slow start.” Given that she improves in this aspect, her fans believe she can get quite close to eclipsing the 10.49 world record mark.

Some even suggested she switch her coaching camp to fill in this void. The fan wrote, “She needs to leave dennis tbh.. her start is still horrible.” Richardson’s coach Dennis Mitchell is known for having some of the quickest reaction times from his sprinting days. But fans believe his mentorship may not be working so well for the Dallas native in this aspect.

But, what is it that causes her slow starts? For the longest time, people speculated it was her nails. In Paris, some of her supporters even cited it may be the fact that she did not get to warm up before the final sprint. However, the confusion over the same continues. A fan, who appears rather befuddled, wrote, “Can someone please explain her start? Is it her size? I don’t get how this hasn’t improved” What do you think about the same? Let us know below.