Louisiana State University (LSU) track star Sha’Carri Richardson made history this month after crossing the finish line to become the sixth-fastest woman in the world!
According to a report from Blavity, the 21-year-old athlete ran the 100-meter dash at the Miramar Invitational in Florida, where she registered an outstanding record of 10.72 seconds.
NBC Sports reported only five other women in the world have been able to outpace Richardson's record, including Florence Griffith Joyner, Carmelita Jeter, Marion Jones, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Elaine Thompson-Herah. According to the outlet, it's been 25 years since the U.S. Olympic won a gold medal in the women's 100m, and it believes Richardson could be the person to end that streak.
"I am who y'all think I am, and I am who I say I am," the track star said just moments after her easy win 1.6 meter/second tailwind win at the invitational. "My season is going to be unbelievable. Something that I haven't been expecting. Something the world hasn't been expecting. It's time."
This new record for Richardson arrives just as she has continued to make a name for herself at LSU over the last few years. Back in 2019, she earned two junior world records where she broke the school's record for the 100-meter dash as a freshman and the 200-meter dash record all in the same day.
Moreover, Richardson went on to win big at the NCAA Track and Field Championships, where she broke Dawn Sowell's 30-year historical record. Even with her stellar success, Richardson has faced her own share of hardships she's had to overcome, like placing eighth at the USATF Outdoor Championships and losing the opportunity to represent the U.S. at the World Championships.
"As an athlete, you have to take your losses just as good as your wins. If you can't do that, you're not a good athlete, in my opinion," Richardson previously told reporters.
Yet and still, the record-breaking track runner never lost focus. Instead, her missteps motivated her to go even harder, and now she's a chapter in our history books displaying Black girl magic through and through.
After deciding to transition from being a college athlete to training professionally, Richardson landed her own Nike running deal with plans to represent the USA at Tokyo's summer Olympics this year.
According to the star athlete, making the choice to train professionally for her sports career was the best decision she's ever made. "Training here with [coach] Dennis Mitchell has been one of the best decisions I've made in my life. I love that he's a coach that's going to make sure you're the athlete you tell him you want to be, on and off the track. I'm glad I came," she told Team USA last year. "It's a great environment for training. I knew that to get to the next level, I had to make myself uncomfortable, meaning push myself to a limit I hadn't pushed myself to before."
Richardson has undoubtedly set the bar high for herself, and she's only going to continue to shock the world with her exceptional skills in track and field. Even after breaking a huge world record, the professional athlete knows there's still plenty of work to be done before she can call it quits.
"I'm not done yet. There's more work to be done; there's ways to get faster, there's ways to become better," she told the USA Track and Field (USATF). "So we're going back to the drawing board."
Huge congratulations to Sha'Carri, and yet another win for Black women around the world!