Sha'Carri Richardson to Race 100, 200 Meters at Prefontaine Classic in August After Suspension Ends

Richardson will race the 100 meters and 200 meters likely for the first time since being suspended for a marijuana positive test.

U.S. sprints star Sha'Carri Richardson will return to racing with the 100 meters and 200 meters at the Prefontaine Classic in August. She will be racing against Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson. 

The three sprinters swept the 100 meters in Tokyo and took home four gold medals.  

The meet on Aug. 21 will likely be her first races since she was suspended one month for a positive test for marijuana at the Olympic Trials and forced to miss the Tokyo Olympics.

Richardson's appearance at the Diamond League meet should come as no surprise since the meet is sponsored by Nike, which also sponsors her. Meet organizers will likely fill the rest of the fields with medalists from the Olympics, allowing fans to see how she would have stacked up against them at the global championship. The full fields will be announced in the coming weeks.

“I’m looking forward to running fast and putting on a show,” she said in a press release for the race.

Earlier this month, Richardson accepted a one-month ban for her positive test on June 28, disqualifying her results from the Olympic trials. 

The 21-year-old won the women’s 100 meters in 10.86 seconds at the U.S. Olympic for track and field in Oregon last month. She crossed the finish line and ran into the stands to embrace her grandmother and celebrate her first Olympic team berth. In her postrace interview with NBC, she revealed that her biological mother died about a week before competing at the meet. 

A few days before the trials, Richardson learned about her mother's death during an interview with a reporter. She later ingested marijuana while in Oregon for the U.S. Olympic Trials. She said the moment she learned of the death was "triggering" and "nerve-shocking" and sent her into an emotional panic.

Richardson was the United States' best hope at winning gold in the women's 100 meters for the first time since 1996. The LSU star burst onto the scene when she won the 2019 NCAA title in a collegiate record of 10.75 seconds. She improved that personal best to 10.72 in April for the sixth-fastest wind-legal time ever.

Richardson's suspension end on July 28. She was not selected by USA Track and Field to be part of the women's 4x100m relay, which starts on Aug. 5.