Sha’Carri Richardson crosses the 100 meter finish line and looks up at the sky. FABRIZIO BENSCH (Portal)
By 9:50 p.m., a hot Budapest night, wetter than any other night in August, Sha’Carri Richardson was being quoted more in the gossip pages than the sports pages, better known for her sleazy scandals – a bit of marijuana, a fight with a flight attendant, a wig that flies, a gesture with the false nails of her hands – and for the viral videos praising her for her athletic ability, of which there were quite a few, for her speed and class and even for being stuck in her heels in the Semifinals and still ran her in 10.84 seconds, and by the final of the 100m, it was coming off ninth street like it was being driven by a hurricane that just adored her — and only He would rate the others at 0.2 meters against the official anemometer – 10.65 seconds later he would finally proclaim her the new queen of speed at his first World Cup. The first born in the 21st century. “Now I’m here. I’m the champion,” I announce. “I already warned you.”
Until then, speed had no queen, she had an empress, a Sisi from the Austro-Hungarian Empire, capital Budapest, a 32-year-old Jamaican mother named Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce, who when she appeared on stage was calm , dominant, holding back her laughter. Sporting a fiery wig, not curls, she received more applause than any of the other eight finalists. In his atomic body, in whose fibers speed was concentrated, there was already room for five world gold medals – the first in 2009 when he was only 22 years old – and two more at the Olympic Games and the first in Beijing, at the age of 21 years. And with his muscles a best mark of 10.60 seconds, the third in history always dominated by the dubious world record of the late Florence Griffith of 10.49 seconds (1988), recognized for both her speed and the sophistication of her long Falsely known is nails and their hairstyles.
In 10.65 seconds, a championship record, the fifth best mark in history, the best in Budapest for the time being, and from the outside road, the power changed hands. With his unstoppable, easy, controlled progress and with a perfect view of everything his rivals were doing to his left, Richardson passed the Jamaican pair Shericka Jackson, second, 10.72 seconds, on lane four, and Fraser-Pryce, bronze, 10 .77 seconds, the best mark of a season in which she could hardly compete due to a knee injury, namely five. And Richardson, stubborn and unique like no other, didn’t even have to throw herself to the finish line to win, but half a meter before that, facing the huge screen, she was already raising her arms like a champion and running on. “My inspiration has always been Florence Griffith. I like this look because of her,” she said, pointing to her long multicolored fake braid, her long nails, her style.
Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce brought the sacred fire of speed to Jamaica and just 15 years later – save for the interregnum, the 2017 World Cup, where American Torie Bowie, who died a few months ago, was absent due to her motherhood, has conquered the northern empire thanks to a 23- year-old athlete who always had her eyes wide open as if she were filled with admiration for the greatness of everything, born in Dallas, who was already the most desirable star for her speed two years ago – was at the age of 19 at the Walked university in 10.79 seconds – and because of her rebellious pose as a bad girl for whom conventions are nothing more than a call to break them in order to, as the surrealists said, scandalize the bourgeoisie, she missed the Tokyo Games for one positive cannabis test in his country, leaving everyone open-eyed. And in the crisis year of 2022, he failed to qualify for the world championship in his country, in Eugene (Oregon). “I came here to stay,” said the Texan, who is coached by sprinter Dennis Mitchell. “No, I’m not back. I’m better. I don’t care what they say about me. The world was my friend then it turned its back on me, but at the end of the day I was always with myself and God with me. My time has come.”
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