Sha’Carri Richardson Receives USATF’s Athlete Of The Year Award
Sha’Carri Richardson has been named Athlete of the Year. The accomplished star was honored on Sunday at the USA Track and Field’s Night of Legends ceremony (Dec. 3) where she received the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Athlete of the Year for Women Award for her dominant performances in 2023.
Richardson’s feats include wins at Budapest’s World Athletics Championship’s 100m, 200m, and the women’s 4x100m relay competitions. The LSU legend accepted the accolade and delivered a speech in person. The 23-year-old spoke about her faith in God and how everything that has happened to her thus far was written. Sha’Carri also expressed her “responsibility” as one of USATF’s top athletes.
“With the God that I serve, everything happens when it’s supposed to happen,” she said. “So when I stand here today as the world champion, that’s because now was the time for that to happen. Now is the most impactful it would be, the most powerful it would be, and the most sincere it would be.
“I understand the influence that I have, I understand the responsibility that I have to USATF and as a top female USA athlete, and to my country, and to my Black family, to my beautiful women, to everybody that has been misunderstood for trying to be their best selves and not be put into a category because they do track and field and have been put in a bubble.”
Elsewhere, Sha’Carri Richardson is featured on Forbes‘ 30 under 30 sports list. The annual list honors 600 North American leaders from 20 various sports. Richardson was among the top 30 on the coveted list.
“Sha’Carri Richardson missed the Tokyo Olympics in 2021 after a failed drug test drew her a one-month suspension; she was later lauded for speaking openly about how she used cannabis to cope with Olympic qualifying and the death of her biological mother,” the Forbes profile details. “After a disappointing 2022 season, she took gold in the 100 meters at the 2023 world championships with the fifth-fastest time ever. She also won bronze in the 200.”
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