Sha’Carri Richardson celebrates winning silver in the women’s 100-meter final during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Aug 03, 2024 in St. Denis, France. (Photo by Getty Images)
SAINT-DENIS, France – A rainy night only made the three medals earned by Sha’Carri Richardson, Melissa Jefferson, and Jasmine Moore glisten that much brighter beneath the bright lights of Paris’ Stade de France.
Richardson’s 10.87-second race was bested only by Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred, who captured the Caribbean country’s first Olympic medal in its history. Jefferson finished just behind Richardson with a time of 10.92 seconds and earned the bronze medal.
“I’m a baby in this sport,” Jefferson said after claiming her medal. “I have a lot of learning and growth to do. And so I feel like those moments where I’m not in first place or not on the podium, I can take those moments and learn from them, and have moments like this to look back on.”
The medal-winning sprints are the first for both Richardson and Jefferson, who are making their Olympic debuts at the Paris 2024 Olympic Games. Richardson qualified for the Tokyo 2020 team but was unable to attend due to a one-month suspension brought about by a positive marijuana test.
Richardson’s journey to Saturday’s silver medal began all the way back in Oregon’s 2021 Prefontaine Classic. She took last place in the women’s 100m race in that meet, marking the rock-bottom of a mountainous comeback. Richardson declared she’d return in top form, and wrote off anyone that decided to doubt her.
Since then, Richardson evolved. It all culminated in her dramatic gesture of removing her signature bright orange hair before she stepped into the blocks of the 100m final at the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest – the same hair she wore when she qualified for Tokyo 2020. It was symbolic. She was stripping away the old and stepping into the new.
Jasmine Moore celebrates winning bronze in the women’s triple jump final during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Aug. 03, 2024 in St. Denis, France. (Photo by Getty Images)
She took the title in that race, finishing in a meet-record time of 10.65 seconds. Now she adds a silver medal to her resume at just 24 years old.
Jefferson, a 23-year-old out of Coastal Carolina, took second place in U.S. Olympic Trials in June. She was just 0.09 seconds behind Richardson. In Saturday’s 100m final she cut that gap to just 0.05 seconds.
“My first Games and I was still able to come out with a medal,” Jefferson said. “I can’t complain about that…The main thing I told myself today was, ‘You are not going to leave here disappointed and upset and empty handed.’”
Moore, the USA’s top-finishing triple jumper, didn’t leave empty handed either. After fouling on her first attempt, she made a statement with her second jump as she notched a 14.67-meter leap. Her 14.67-meter mark was her season-best effort and was just 0.27 meters short of the silver medal jump by Jamaica’s Shanieka Ricketts. The second attempt was the lucky jump for each of the medalists, as all three produced their medal-winning leaps on the second try.
“I got 24th in Tokyo,” Moore began. “So just the transition from collegiate schedule to professional has helped a lot…I needed this moment. And now going forward this has really proved to myself that I can do more than I think I can.”
Moore is also a long jumper and will begin qualifications in that event on August 6 at 11:15 a.m. Paris time (5:15 a.m. EDT). Richardson and Jefferson will each be available for the women’s 4x100m relay beginning on August 8.
All three women will look to add more medals to the Team USA count as Olympic track and field continues throughout the second week of Olympic competition in Paris.
Madison Chandler is writing for Team USA as a graduate student in the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis.
