There Is More Than One Way To Get To The Podium’s Top Step

There Is More Than One Way To Get To The Podium’s Top Step

2023 World Athletics Championships

Budapest, Hungary

August 21, 2023

The 2023 World Athletics Championships are off to a great start: Day One: a gold medal performance by USA’s Ryan Crouser in the shot put; a bumpy but successful homestretch run for gold by Ethiopia’s Gudaf Tsegay in the women’s 10,000m; and a world-record performance by USA’s 4x400m mixed relay to top off the evening. Day Two: A blow-by-blow hammer battle which resulted in Ethan Katzberg winning a first-ever gold medal for Canada; a tenth-event showdown in the women’s heptathlon which resulted in a breath-taking homestretch drive and a narrow, hard-fought gold medal for Great Britain’s Katarina Johnson-Thompson; a scintillating final furlong by Joshua Chepteigei as he successfully defended his 10,000 titles; and a fast close by USA’s Noah Lyles to snatch gold in the men’s 100m final and to seize a possible shot at a 100m/200m sprint double.

But what will happen tonight? There are various pathways to success. And on Day Three, the four winning finalists earned victory in different ways.

The Surprise: Over her career, USA sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson has presented herself in various ways: ebullient; serious; teasingly; funny; outrageous; etc. And on Day Three, she fooled quite a few folks. Richardson had a scare in her semi-final round of the women’s 100 meters. She finished 3^rd in her semi-final heat and had to sweat it out: Would she move on to the final? Or would her quest for a 100m medal be over?. After a wait that probably felt like an eternity, she got the little Q she needed and would be moving on to the final. In the ensuing locker room wait of over an hour, the young sprinter had time to stew about what had happened in the prelim and how she would handle the final – from Lane 9. Lane 9 is where sprinters go to die. When the moment for introduction arrived, Sha’Carri would be the first finalist to come through the entry and out onto the stadium.. As the music blared, the crowd roared, expecting Richardson to bound out onto the start line. Instead, Richardson came out slowly. Wide-eyed and looking around tentatively, she walked to her Lane 9 position. She looked like a deer in the headlights. Her competitors engaged in jumping and other pre-race protocols as…