The topic of the day is Sha’Carri Richardson and how her whole image changed. Sha'Carri Richardson is one of the young upcoming prestigious track and field athletes. Sha'Carri has given the USA team hope that one day she will bring a gold medal to the US. As people have seen her performances in college and her early pro career, many have seen her potential. Sha'Carri attended the University of Louisiana State, where she ran a 10.75 which broke the women's 100m record at the National Champions. When Miss Richardson ran at the World Athletics Continental Tour Gold, she ran a blazing 10.77 despite the 1.2 m/s wind. This happened to be the fastest anyone has ever ran with a wind speed of 1.2. Sha'Carri would go on to earn a spot on the USC Olympic team. The Olympics this year took place in Japan. The opportunity for Miss Richardson to participate in the 2021 Olympics was taken from her in a blink of an eye. Her opportunity was token from her because of a failed drug test. Sha'Carri failed her drug test because the use of THC. The reasoning behind her use of Marijuana was because of the death of her mother. Miss Richardson used marijuana as a coping method to make her feel better. Her decision to smoke ruined her opportunity of running in the Tokyo Olympics. There was an ongoing debate on whether or not she should be able to participate because many athletes believe that marijuana doesn't enhance performance. Also there was the debate that she was only using it because the death of her mother, which I believe is very understandable. Miss Richardson didn't argue and took her punishment as it was. So since she missed the Olympics due to a drug test, a few weeks later after the Olympics there was another track event. This was going to be the first time Sha’Carri would run in a race since the Olympic trails. Sha'Carri participated in this race and she placed in last place. This performance made many believers, doubters. The whole world knows she didn't perform to her best of abilities but it just looks bad. As an athlete many people love you when things are going good but when things get tuff, everyone wants to throw negativity on you. Athletes are people too, just not used for entertainment. Many people go through things in life and you never know it affects that person.
Since the Olympics were held this summer and this was a polarizing issue before the games I am very glad you decided to bring your opinion to us. For me this is a very annoying issue, I completely agree that she shouldn't be punished for the use of recreational use of marijuana because she was legally doing it. But, at the same time she did know that she wasn't allowed to be smoking because the substance is banned. Overall this needs reform because in all honest substances that are not going to improve performance. Like if you want to do cocaine you should be able to do as much as you want because it will most certainly not improve perfor…
I really liked how you report on this event and also use your own perspective as a student athlete to reflect upon the unfair pressures put on athletes to be perfect. It is understandable that she would self medicate using marijuana given the recent passing of her mother, and it saddens me that marijuana is still criminalized to that extent.
I thought this was an interesting and relevant topic to discuss. Although Richardson used marijuana as a coping mechanism for her mother's death, I do believe there could have been other ways to cope especially since she was aware of the rules for running in the Tokyo Olympics. However, at the same time, since marijuana is not an enhancing drug I do think they could have made an exception or possibly change the rules in the future.
I really liked that you chose to write about this topic. I personally believe that it made sense that she wasn’t allowed to compete. The rules have always been completely clear and it made sense why she wasn’t allowed to run, however, I do believe that the rule should change. Marijuana is not a performance enhancing drug and therefore athletes should be able to use it without punishment. I think that this situation will hopefully create a conversation about changing the rule.
Hi Tyresse,
This was a great topic to write on for a blog post. Current events like these are pivotal in the way we move forward ethically and morally in the professional athletic industry. Your syntax and grammar could use a little work on this piece; I think it would be a great subject to include in your final portfolio but it could use some refining. Try to make your sentences fuller by adding adjectives and maybe combining a sentence or two so that you do not have too many short ideas. Additionally, the article reported more than it did delve deep into the subject; this was rather a summary than an analysis with engagement and acknowledgement of significance. You…