The delayed Tokyo Olympics began three years ago with a smaller light, fewer spectators, and no Sha’Carri Richardson, the earth was still suffering from the coronavirus crisis. The then-21-year-old found herself again house, grieving the loss of her biological family and feeling the weight of a one-month suspension for a good pot test after making Team USA during the 2021 Olympic Studies.
Richadson’s circumstances today appear unique. The American racer won three medals—gold in the 100 m and the 4x100m circuit, and copper in the 200 meters—at the 2023 World Athletic Championships. She backed that effectiveness up at the U. S. Olympic Track and Field Studies in June, winning the 100 feet in a world-leading 10.71 and solidifying her as the person to hit at the 2024 Olympics.

On Friday, Richardson may make her 100-meter heat album in Paris. All eyes will be on how she performs on this worldwide level, despite the fact that the Dallas local actually made a specialized treatment at the world championships last year.
Even if you do n’t follow track and field outside of the Olympics, chances are, you’ve seen Richardson on your screens in the last year. Despite the fact that she was unable to join the Olympic team in 2021, NBC Universal, a long-standing rightsholder of the Olympics, has relied on Richardson as a key player in its Paris Games deals. Legacy media at Comcast has historically looked to athletes who were not only anticipated to get gold but who also had the ability to avoid disagreement in previous campaigns.
But given Richardson’s success last year at worlds, along with her brazen demeanor, NBC could n’t pass her up. ” Sha’Carri is one of the most compelling, talented and popular Team USA athletes, so it’s only logical that she would feature prominently in our Olympic campaigns alongside many other talented people and women”, Jenny Storms, chief marketing officer for NBC Universal’s entertainment and sporting group, said during a press conference at the U. S. Track and Field Studies.
Adult athletes get our notice without the support of well-marketed expert leagues because track is seen every four years with the Olympic period. Richardson has raised the issue of how to engage audiences in her game outside of the Olympics, as has many of her fellow competitors.
The players themselves are the best advertisers for the events, despite the fact that NBCU has always relied heavily on celebrity to raise that kind of interest every four years. Even though it was n’t specific if Richardson had join Team USA until the tests in June, there was no reluctance from the legacy media section to include her as much as possible in the run-up to Paris.
” She’s not just the fastest woman in the world with amazing elegance, she’s also stoically honest, which has resonated so much with people”, Storms said. ” It’s been our privilege to contribute to her story,” she said, “whether it was posing like a hero during our fall promotional take on the Universal bunch or styling her nails with Cardi B.”

” She’s been a players master, and we’re looking forward to seeing what she will perform this summertime.”
Rather of” unflinchingly honest, “many of Sha’Carri’s supporters would call it anything else—she’s” unapologetically Black “in an age where the whole appearance of Black people numbers (especially Black people ) is both celebrated and condemned, often at the same time. She has always tapped into it, whether it was making a comment about the double standard between her 2022 Winter Games abuse for smoking weed or her lack thereof in a since-deleted post or honoring Black female superiority on the track for herself and others.
Richardson also said as much in a well-regarded February 2022 account for Teen Vogue”. When I’m off the record, I experience things really like … any other woman, any additional Black person had practice,” she said at the time”. But, to me, never to acknowledge that would be part of the problem. I may be part of the reason why there’s no shift. The fact that I say that I’m Black before an performer, I truly stand on that.”
Due to the fact that both women embody what it means to be “unapologetically Black” (or, in Cardi B’s case, Afro-Latina ), it was also a part of what made her union with Cardi B stand out from the other interview pairings NBCU put together prior to the Olympics. The music star’s image has changed significantly since she first appeared in Love and Hip-Hop: New York nearly ten years ago, and the two women have a strong connection over their respective work ethics and Paris.
Madison Avenue may have resisted doing it in the past, but some manufacturers today aspire to it. Even though Richardson has n’t yet appeared in any Super Bowl commercials like Cardi B, her endorsement record is nothing to be offended. She endorses Olay, Sprite, Dannon ( notably its Oikos brand ) and Beats by Dre, and she was also the face of Nike’s Spring 2024 campaign with French fashion house Jacquemus. It’s important to note that Nike stayed connected to her throughout her successful pot test and subsequent negative effects. ( Sportico reached out to Richardson’s agency, HSI, during the Olympic trials, but reps declined requests for an interview. )
The 24-year-old Richardson is expected to leave Paris a bigger legend than she has always been, especially if she brings equipment back to the United States. Health ready, how she’s marketed for Paris will pale in comparison to how she’ll be seen and heard if she’s racing on household ground at the 2028 Games in Los Angeles.