Sha’Carri Richardson is straight-up one of the most iconic track stars ever. This Olympic gold medalist is the modern-day Florence Griffith-Joyner, blending blazing speed with stunning style. She’s not just the fastest woman on the track, but she’s also the face of the sport. But what the athlete is mostly known for these days is her performance while leading a relay team.

The US athlete has been performing brilliantly as an anchor for the US 4×100 team and has contributed massively to their victories in the World Championships and the Paris Olympics. This has earned Sha’Carri Richardson praise from the team coach, Mechelle Lewis Freeman, who had only great words to say about the athlete in a recent podcast. However, the coach revealed an interesting detail about her junior career, which many aren’t aware of.

Mechelle Lewis Freeman spills the tea on coaching young Sha’Carri Richardson

Talking to the Ready Set Go podcast, Mechelle Lewis Freeman discussed her experience working with Sha’Carri Richardson as the coach of the women’s relay team for the first time in 2023. She talked about how she had worked with her before on a junior team before finally linking up with her for the World Championship Budapest team.

During that time, she had run as a third leg and was still quite great, a trait unknown to many. “I worked with Sha’Carri on a junior team, and she ran the third leg. And she runs an amazing third leg.” But according to Mechelle, her strength lies in being an anchor. “She’s one of the best anchors of all time that I have. She showed it; she showed the people running. She showed the world that she was the best anchor leg.”

Thus, when the women’s relay coach had the chance to work with the track athlete, she decided to grab it as she felt it would heavily benefit the team. This would turn out to be a great decision as the 4x100m relay team would go on to win the gold medal at Budapest with Sha’Carri Richardson running anchor with a time of 41.03 records.

Her split time of 9.65 seconds was the fastest in history. Sha’Carri Richardson also played a huge role in the US’s victory in the 4x100m at the Paris Olympics, where she stared down her opponent before crossing the finish line. Thus, there’s no doubt that the athlete is a track icon. For her extraordinary performances, another coach also praised her.

Sha’Carri Richardson earns praise from coach in Netflix docuseries

In the second season of Sprint, Sha’Carri Richardson’s coach Dennis Mitchell talked about how he has immensely enjoyed working with her in Star Athletics. Dennis said, “I call her (Sha’Carri) my little bit, but she’s a lot, and then we got Tee Tee Terry. She’s the group mom.” After that, he talked about the athlete’s performance in 2023, which he considered extraordinary. “She went on a rampage last year. She was our number one athlete.”

While her 4x100m relay performance in Budapest is still fresh in everyone’s minds, Sha’Carri Richardson’s 100m performance cannot be forgotten either. In that race, she fought off the likes of Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce and Julian Alfred to win the gold medal in 10.65 seconds.

The athlete also performed well in the 200m, finishing third behind Shericka Jackson and Gabby Thomas. This was no doubt a huge achievement and thus earned a lot of praise from her coach, Dennis Mitchell. While she didn’t reach those same heights at the Paris Olympics, a silver medal in the 100m and gold in 4×100 is still a great outcome for the athlete who was competing in her first-ever Olympics. Thus, Sha’Carri Richardson has proven that she’s one of the best athletes in the world in recent years.