Sanya Richards-Ross predicts medal Sha’Carri Richardson will win at Paris Olympics

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Sanya Richards-Ross predicts medal Sha’Carri Richardson will win at Paris Olympics

Joel Omotto 16:59 - 21.06.2024

Four-time Olympics champion Sanya Richards-Ross has made a bold claim about the medal Sha’Carri Richardson will likely win at the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Multiple Olympic champion Sanya Richards-Ross feels world champion Sha’Carri Richardson is the favourite to win Olympics gold in 100m at the Paris 2024 Games.

Richardson won her first world title over the distance when she beat a strong field that included Jamaicans Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce at the 2023 World Championships to announce her arrival on the grand stage.

She has since maintained her status as one of the world’s top sprinters and Richards-Ross, who won four Olympics gold medals, is backing the 24-year-old Texas native to claim his first Olympics title in Paris.

“She is a superstar. She is dynamic and she's a champion. She stepped on the track last season and really quieted all the noise about her by winning her first world title against one of the toughest fields that could have been assembled,” Richards-Ross told NBC.

“I think for her and I hope for her, that gave her tremendous confidence because we all know the talent is there. It’s just about her running in that confident, authentic, body of hers and giving it everything that she has.

“I am excited to see what she does this season. It’s really shaping up to me to be Sha’Carri’s year. I think she could really back up that world championship with her first Olympic gold medal.”

Richardson is seeking to banish the memories of three years ago, when she won the US Olympics trials only to be locked out of the Tokyo Games after testing positive for cannabis, given the American trials for the Paris Games will start in Oregon on Friday June 21.

It will be the second 100m race of the year for Richardson after her victory at the Prefontaine Classic in May when she clocked 10.83.

Richards-Ross has much confidence in Richardson due to how well she handles pressure despite still being in the early stages of her career.

“You’ve seen so much maturity in Sha’Carri Richardson. Every time she speaks now she's like, ‘I'm owning this role and I'm learning a lot about myself and I'm growing.’ We’ve seen it play out right in front of our eyes and so they're doing a really good job of balancing it all because it's really, really hard when you put the pressure that you put on yourself,” she added.

The world 200m bronze medallist will also be doubling at the trials where the top three will earn a ticket to the Olympics.

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