When Sha’Carri Richardson stepped onto the track at the Tokyo Diamond League in May, it just wasn’t the season opener that fans wanted to see. A shaky start and an 11.47 finish left her out of the top three. What followed was silence. No interviews. No social media flurry. Just absence. For weeks, the only thing louder than her starting blocks was the speculation around them. Now, on the eve of the Prefontaine Classic, Richardson has reappeared. And we finally have the answers! Hear it from herself…

Ahead of race day in Eugene, she revealed at a press conference that a February mishap disrupted her season, forcing her to tread carefully through a long season. With the World Championships pushed to mid‑September, she’s using the prolonged season as a tactical play, avoiding early-season missteps and targeting peak health when it counts most.

“The injury completely set me back from the season, delaying my start,” Richardson clarified. Speaking about the World Championships, Sha’Carri stated that the unusually late date of this year’s Worlds has provided her with an unexpected advantage. “Definitely it’s a blessing in disguise this year that the season is kind of longer,” Richardson said, sounding more measured than defiant. “I’m definitely grateful for the long season, but I definitely know it’s gonna give me time to be ready when it all counts and everything—and the only thing that matters is World Championships.” That shift in mindset explains her limited racing schedule so far in 2025. 

Outside of a single 100-meter race in Tokyo this May, where she clocked an underwhelming 11.47 seconds, Richardson has largely avoided the starting blocks. For most sprinters, such an absence would raise questions. For Sha’Carri Richardson, it appears to be part of a larger plan to arrive at full strength just as the season peaks. Her tone throughout the press conference made clear that this was not about ducking competition but managing her physical condition with the long view in mind.

Although she won’t need to run the 100 meters at the U.S. trials—thanks to her automatic berth as reigning world champion—Richardson confirmed she plans to contest the 200 meters instead. “I definitely am honored to [be] the reigning world champion in the 100 meters so I’ll be having a bye of the hundred,” she said, “but I definitely plan on competing in the 200 coming up for trials.” Surely, her focus is unmistakable, and her confidence seems quietly anchored in preparation rather than theatrics.

Sha’Carri Richardson’s uneasy start casts a long shadow over the Prefontaine Classic challenge

Even before the starter’s pistol cracked through the air at Tokyo’s National Stadium, Sha’Carri Richardson appeared uneasy. Her false step on the blocks was not disqualification-worthy, but it set the tone for what followed. A sluggish, dispiriting 11.47 that placed her fourth behind an unheralded field. With a tight jaw and a single sentence for the press, she departed without interest in explanation. For an athlete who opened last season with a commanding 10.83 in Eugene, the contrast could not be more stark.

The difficulty for Richardson in 2025 lies not only in her results but in the changing landscape around her. No longer flanked by the familiar figures of Jackson or Thompson-Herah, she now contends with a younger, hungrier group of contenders whose performances are outpacing their reputations. At the Golden Grand Prix, it was Australia’s Bree Rizzo, who emerged first, clocking 11.38, while Canada’s Sade McCreath and Twanisha Terry, her own compatriot, edged her by fractions. These are not names that once stirred headlines, but they now occupy podiums.

This weekend’s Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, taking place at a venue where Richardson once dazzled, now presents a different proposition. She arrives not as a runaway favorite but as part of a dense and volatile field. What was once a celebratory return now carries tension. The stakes are implicit. With the World Championships returning to Tokyo in September, her path forward demands more than defiance. It requires answers.