Sha’Carri Richardson sees the 2024 Olympic games as her shot at redemption. After an amazing performance at the Olympic Trials in 2021, she tested positive for THC and missed out on her chance to compete for team USA at the Tokyo games. Since then, she’s been out to prove that she’s up for the challenge this time around. “I’m not back,” she says. “I’m better.”
In an interview for Vogue’s August 2024 digital edition, the superstar sprinter opened up about her evolution as an athlete, her personal style and the meaning behind a viral moment she had on the track last year.
“I’m not gonna change the confidence that I have in myself ever. But at the same time, I have learned there is a way that I can carry that so much more gracefully. That’s where that moment came from,” she told Vogue in the interview.
Richardson’s confidence was on full display at the U.S. Track and Field Championships in July 2023, when before the race started, she took off the signature orange wig she had raced in so many times before to reveal a beautiful set of ombré braids.
“Oh wow, she means business,” you can hear one of the race announcers saying in the background as the wig lay on the track.
Richardson won that race with a time of 10.82 seconds and became a national champion who will represent the United States at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris.
Key Rentz, who did Richardson’s braids for the meet, told Vogue that she originally worried that Sha’Carri didn’t like her style when she showed up for the race in the wig. But as soon as the wig came off, Rentz said she knew exactly what message Richardson wanted to get across. “When I seen her rip it, I was like ‘Oh my god, yes ma’am, I know that’s right.’ I understood the symbolism when she did it. I understand where she was coming from,” Rentz told Vogue.
Richardson, who is known just as much for her creative hair styles and acrylic nails as her supersonic speed on the track, credits legendary track and field athlete Florence Griffith-Joyner (aka Flo-Jo) — also known for her creative outfits and colorful nails — for inspiring her style on the track.
“Flo-Jo’s influence on me definitely comes from her creativity and her freedom to express herself in a way that no other female athlete has ever done. Showing beauty, yet being able to show hard work,” she said.
Richardson added that she sees the track as an opportunity to showcase her style and express herself, which hopefully means fans can see that style on full display at the Summer Games.
“The way that I run down the track is almost like the same way I could strut down the runway. Fashion and sports are one and the same – an expression of self, an expression of flow, ” she said. “Basically, my lane is my catwalk.”