Sha'Carri Richardson says athletes don't receive money from the Team USA Fund: "Do not donate"
In August, Sha’Carri Richardson won big at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary. She managed to beat out her competition in the 4×100 meter race from lane nine with a record of 10.65 seconds. Richardson took home gold in the women’s relay and bronze in the 200, adding to the U.S. track and field team’s 29 medal total.
Today (Dec. 6), the sprinter called out Team USA for allegedly not paying its players. On her Instagram Story, she wrote, “Do not donate. The athletes that need this money don’t see it.”
Elsewhere in the post was an advert for the Team USA Fund. It was captioned, “One hundred percent of donations to the Team USA Fund goes to the athletes and the high-performance programming that supports them.”
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According to the committee’s official website, athletes are collectively paid roughly $2.5 million with the help of donors and organizations. They can also apply for tuition, training, and travel grants.
At the time of reporting, Team USA has not publicly commented on Richardson’s statement.
Last Sunday (Dec. 3), Richardson was honored with the Jackie Joyner-Kersee Athlete of the Year Award at the USA Track and Field’s Night of Legends ceremony. The Dallas, Texas native also gave an empowering speech about her faith in God and her duty as a player.
“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.”
Richardson added, “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, 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.”
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