Look, the first races of the season don’t always tell the whole story. After months off, even the fastest athletes need time to shake off the rust and get back into race shape. But when you’re Sha’Carri Richardson, a blazing talent and fashion icon dubbed “the Flo-Jo of our time,” a slow start isn’t just a blip. It’s a headline. Especially because SCR is already late opening her 2025 season, and her recent race in Tokyo on May 18 left fans and critics asking, Is she still the same Olympic silver medalist from Paris? What happened out there?
Let’s rewind. Sha’Carri Richardson lit up the 2024 Paris Olympics, winning gold in the 4×100m relay and taking silver in the 100m after a slow start off the blocks let Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred sneak past. Her relay gold was the career highlight, but now, at the Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo, the first race of her 2025 season, she finished fourth with a time of 11.47 seconds. That’s well off her personal best of 10.65 and, honestly, far slower than we expect.
And naturally, that sparked questions about her current form. Watching the race, Sha’Carri Richardson looked rusty, struggling to find her rhythm. She didn’t get her usual explosive start and couldn’t make up ground on the leaders. Australia’s Bree Rizzo won the race at 11.38, Sha’Carri’s training partner TeeTee Terry took second at 11.42, and Canada’s Sade McCreath was third in 11.46.
To be fair, the runners faced a headwind of -0.9 meters per second, which slowed times across the board—but Sha’Carri’s 11.47 was still her slowest 100m. In fact, Sha’Carri’s time today in Japan was her slowest since that 2021 Diamond League preliminary heat in Gateshead, where she ran 11.53 into a brutal -4.2 m/s headwind. That race was her slowest 100m as a professional. Since then, she’s improved dramatically, with her personal best of 10.65 set at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest.
11.47 (-0.9 wind) for Sha’Carri Richardson in her 2025 opener at 100m.
That’s Richardson’s slowest 100m time since May 2021, when she ran 11.53 into a huge 4.2 wind in a prelim at the Gateshead Diamond League. https://t.co/9DiW7kyzdG
— Jonathan Gault (@jgault13) May 18, 2025
Even her second slowest time before today was 11.23 seconds at the 2024 Brussels Diamond League final, where she finished eighth. So this recent slow finish in Japan raises an old, uncomfortable question that has hovered over her career: Is Sha’Carri Richardson ready to perform at her best? With the 2025 World Championships also set for Tokyo later this year, this performance can’t be ignored.
History shows Sha’Carri can bounce back from slow starts and come roaring back, but it’s clear she needs to sharpen up if she wants to reclaim the track and silence doubters. So what do you think? For the first time since 2021, Sha’Carri Richardson’s slow pace has people genuinely questioning, especially looking back at the 2024 winning streak. It raises many doubts. Why?
Sha’Carri Richardson slipping before the world stage in Tokyo
See, we all know the Olympics are the dream of every athlete. But so is the World Championship, which is also being held this year in Tokyo, a city loaded with meaning for Sha’Carri Richardson. It’s where she was supposed to make her Olympic debut in 2021 before that suspension shook everything up. Fast-forward to 2025, and fans were expecting a blazing comeback.
But when she finally opened her season at the Seiko Golden Grand Prix in Tokyo, things didn’t quite go to plan. That’s not the kind of stat line you expect from someone dubbed “the Flo-Jo of our time.” And to make that dream come true, athletes need to work hard and show up on time. The issue here? Sha’Carri is very late to open her season. Compare that to last year—a completely different story.
She kicked off her 2024 run, as it was an Olympic year, as early as March 30 in the 4x100m relay at the Pepsi Florida Relays, clocking 43.04 with her squad. Then she opened her individual 100m campaign on May 25 at the Prefontaine Classic with a solid 10.83 (+1.5). In the build-up to the Paris Olympics, she ran nine races in her signature events (100m and 200m), staying sharp and consistent. Her slowest 100m in 2024?
A still-speedy 10.88 on June 21 at the U.S. Olympic Trials. Her fastest? A blazing 10.71 the very next day, which helped her lock in a silver medal in Paris. That kind of range built her confidence and scared her competitors. But now, here we are in 2025 with her slowest time in four years and at the very same venue that will host the World Championships later this year.
That’s what makes this such a big deal. Of course, it’s possible this is just early-season rust. We’ve seen Sha’Carri Richardson bounce back before, and she’s proven that doubting her too early can backfire. The gap between her current time and last year’s form is huge, and questions are being raised, for the first time since her 2021 comeback, about her fitness, preparation, and mindset. Can she sharpen up and reclaim the spotlight in Tokyo? The clock’s ticking, and the world is watching.
The post Sha’Carri Richardson’s Japan Trip Raises 4-Year-Old Question as American Star’s Poor Finish Raises Concerns Over Debut appeared first on EssentiallySports.
