The Parable of Sha’Carri Richardson
Track and field may be the sport that’s the easiest to understand. Who can run the fastest? Who can throw the farthest? Who can jump the highest or farthest? The competition goes straight to the heart of questions about who has the superior level of baseline athleticism. Even though there are a set of encyclopedias’ worth of Byzantine rules and regulations governing the sport, everyone everywhere comprehends what’s happening at a basic level when they watch a track and field event. Even so, outside the quadrennial explosion of attention it draws at the Summer Olympic Games, track and field has struggled to find and maintain a consistently large enough audience to make it a truly successful professional sport. How to solve this lingering problem plagues the powers that be in track and field, and there have and will continue to be discussions about the vision and leadership required to elevate the status of the sport. Like any other form of entertainment, celebrity matters a great deal in the equation. With the retirement of one of the greatest sports personalities of all time — Usain Bolt — track and field has been desperate to find a replacement. Jumping the gun on that point may be the simplest explanation for why Sha’Carri Richardson has experienced such a swift and precipitous ascent and decline in her fortunes. In spite of her immense talent and big personality, it doesn’t seem that Richardson was ready…
