American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson won the 100-meter world title Monday night with a personal-best 10.65 seconds at the 2023 World Athletics Championships, at the National Athletics Centre.

The 23-year-old Richardson’s win was a surprising upset of Jamaican sprinters Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who finished second and third, respectively. Said Richardson: “I’m honored, I’m blessed, I had great competition, (which) pulled the best out of me, and I’m just honored to leave with a gold medal … I’m going to stay humble. I’m not back, I’m better and I’ll continue to be better.”

Richardson’s win also marked the first women’s 100-meter world championship by an American since Tori Bowie did so in 2017. Her agent Renaldo Nehemiah, a former world class sprinter and hurdler, said: “She was more than capable of running 10.65, we knew that. We just knew that running it on the biggest stage in the world is a lot harder than just saying it.”  

The victory on Monday night was huge for Richardson, who failed to advance out of the 100-meter heats in last year’s U.S. Track and Field Championships. Said Nehemiah: “I’m just so proud of her because a year ago we were light years away from a full package of being able to compete at this level and she’s put in the work.”

Richardson’s comeback comes after she was suspended in 2021 and forced to miss the Tokyo Olympic Games after testing positive for THC, the chemical in cannabis. The sprinter accepted responsibility for her actions while explaining she took the drug to cope with the stress of her mother’s sudden death.

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