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American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson may have come in at the bottom of the pack in this weekend’s 100-m race at the Prefontaine Classic, but she is speeding towards the top of everyone’s list of villains with some of her latest antics. First, the 21-year-old appeared to throw a subliminal shot at fellow track star Allyson Felix, despite the decorated Olympian’s support of Richardson, and then approved of an insensitive remark about Jamaicans via her Twitter account.
On Tuesday, Felix appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! to discuss a variety of topics, such as winning her tenth and eleventh medals at the Tokyo Olympics, being the most decorated woman in Olympic track and field history, struggles she faced during her pregnancy and the launch of her own sneaker line. Guest host Stephen A. Smith asked Felix about her feelings on Richardson’s recent trials (skip to the 7:07 mark in the video below), and Felix was classy and sympathetic in her response.
“She’s obviously been through so much,” Felix said, hinting at the death of Richardson’s mother, being banned from the Tokyo Olympics, and then having a poor showing at the Prefontaine Classic a few days earlier. “I hope that people rally around her. Obviously, she has a great personality, and she’s brought a lot of attention to the sport. I think she’ll be in the sport for a very long time. I think more than anything, for all athletes, there’s so much that goes into it — we just, you know, give her the support that she needs.”
But it seemed like Richardson couldn’t care less according to what she wrote on her own IG story and kept her thoughts short. Although she didn’t reference Felix by name, the sixth fastest woman ever wrote, “Encouraging words on TV shows are just as real as well nothing at all.” Yeesh!
But Richardson wasn’t done for the day. Or at least not according to whoever runs her Twitter account. Perhaps the sprinter still felt she had a score to settle with the Jamaican track team, stemming from the weekend’s races.
Right after Jamaican runner Elaine Thompson-Herah won the Prefontaine classic, reporters asked her about thoughts regarding Richardson’s performance, to which Thompson-Herah replied, “No comment.” Video also surfaced of her teammate Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who captured second place, appearing to make an open-mouth smirk at cameras during Richardson’s postrace interview. However, when asked about Richardson, she gave exactly the same response as Thompson-Herah. And when pressed about the face she seemingly made, Frayser-Price said, “I wasn’t watching Sha’Carri, to be honest.”
However, Richardson’s fans have been taking shots at Jamaica and the women’s team since. Twitter account @jackisahater poked fun at Frayser-Price and said of her, “Shorty in the back look like Lil Wayne.” Richardson’s account initially liked the comment but later removed the “like.” But Jamaican Twitter disapproved and went in on her.
And another of Richardson’s fans didn’t seem to have bought the response and let those feelings be known on social media. Twitter user @yungjulezzz was involved in a back-and-forth with Jamaican journalist Daniel Jarrett when this response came out: “Not y’all Jamaicans still talking s*** when y’all gotta walk barefoot to your coconut stand every day for a living.” And Richardson’s account liked that reply, too!
Although Richardson has since “unliked” the response, Black Twitter is not letting this behavior slide. Take a look at some of the responses flying on Twitter:
