Three years after hitting rock bottom, Sha'Carri Richardson heads to the Olympics poised to conquer the pinnacle of her sport.

The 24-year-old Texan arrives in Paris as the reigning world champion over 100m, and the fastest woman in the world this year with a brisk 10.71 sec under her belt.

Factor in the relative disarray of her main rivals, and it's easy to see why Richardson is a heavy favorite to become the first American since Gail Devers at the 1996 Olympics to be regarded as the world's fastest woman.

It is all a far cry from 2021, when Richardson found herself barred from competing at the pandemic-delayed Tokyo Olympics after testing positive for marijuana during the US trials.

That shattering loss was followed by more disappointment in 2022, when, despite impressive early season form, Richardson failed to qualify for the World Championships after bombing out in the heats at the US trials.

Yet, the tide turned spectacularly last season, when Richardson roared back to form at the World Championships, stunning a high-caliber field from the outside lane to snatch victory in a championship record 10.65 sec.

Throughout her resurgence, Richardson has recited a personal mantra: "I'm not back. I'm better," attributing her return to form as the result of maturing both on and off the track.

"I don't just mean I'm a better runner," she told Vogue magazine in a recent interview.

"It's beyond that. I'm better at being Sha'Carri. I'm better at being myself."

Richardson, who often gives the impression of having a siege mentality, admits that her most challenging opponent has often been herself.

"These last two years I've always had the ingredients to be the athlete I know I can be, and that I train to be," Richardson has said.

'I was angry'

"I feel like, where I am now, I've always been this person — it's just been locked in me.

" (In 2022) I was angry. I saw red everywhere I went. And I was going to make sure everybody felt that as well.

"Now, I'm at a point where I see me. And I want everybody everywhere I go to see me as well. Whether I'm running fast, or sitting here talking to you guys."

Richardson's penchant for long, brightly painted finger nails and colorful hairstyles has earned her comparisons to the late Florence Griffith-Joyner, whose 1988 time of 10.49 sec remains the 100m world record.

Some who have studied Richardson's running style believe she could potentially threaten Flo-Jo's longstanding benchmark.

"She's just built different," said former training partner and 2004 Olympic 100m champion Justin Gatlin.

"Physically, she has, the perfect form. If you have an eye for track and field, the way she strikes and hits the ground, you don't have to coach it, she does it naturally, she picks up speed naturally. It's amazing."

While Richardson is an unabashed admirer of Griffith-Joyner, she insists that "as much as I love that comparison, I'm just me."

"I'm just Sha'Carri Richardson, and I plan on being Sha'Carri Richardson when I leave this sport," she says.

So far in 2024, all the indicators are that Richardson will depart her sport as an Olympic champion.

Three of her most formidable opponents from Jamaica have either been ruled out of the Olympics altogether, or are struggling with indifferent form and injury.

Reigning Olympic 100m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah, who had been chasing a third consecutive 100m-200m double, is out after suffering a torn Achilles tendon.

Father Time, meanwhile, appears to have finally begun reeling in Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the 37-year-old two-time Olympic champion. Fraser-Pryce finished third at the Jamaica trials in June with a time of 10.94 sec.

And world 200m champion Shericka Jackson, who was also expected to challenge in the 100m, saw her pre-Olympic preparations disrupted by a recent injury scare in Hungary.

An Olympic gold in August would be the reward for untold hours of gruelling training sessions, as well as for her personal growth over the past two seasons since the nadirs of 2021 and 2022.

"Every time you step on the track, it's a validation of the time you've put in, the sacrifices you make on the daily," Richardson said in her interview with Vogue.

"When I get on the blocks, it's about getting the job done. I know there's joy at the other end, at the finish line.

"But, I also know I've got to earn that happiness."

AFP