BENOIT DOPPAGNE/BELGA MAG/AFP via Getty Images
Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia won that nation's first-ever Olympic medal in the women's 100-meter final in 10.72 seconds, stunning the favorite, American Sha'Carri Richardson, for the gold and the glory. Melissa Jefferson, Richardson's training partner, won bronze.
The race, which took place in pouring rain, was not close from the beginning, as Alfred carved out a lead within the first 10 meters and never let it go. Richardson kicked hard but could not catch up after a slow start, finishing in 10.87. Jefferson ran a 10.92.
Richardson won gold in the event at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, setting up high expectations for her performance in Paris. Her winning time there, 10.65 seconds, set a championships record—and was seven-hundredths of a second faster than Alfred's time today, indicating that Richardson had gold in her grasp in Paris.
But she appeared to get caught in the blocks. The final echoed the results of the semifinal when Richardson also started slowly and Alfred finished .05 seconds ahead of her—a margin Alfred would triple in the final.
Alfred had qualified first to the 100m final Saturday, but had run just the third-fastest time in the event this year (10.78), behind Richardson's Olympic Trials time and American Jacious Sears' 10.77 time in April (Sears withdrew from the Olympic Trials).
Richardson is hardly the only Olympian favored to win a gold but fall short on the day. The Olympics are uniquely unforgiving circ*mstances, occurring just once every four years. One off day on race day can mean the difference between medal colors, or even between standing on a podium and heartbreak. And the 100 meters is the most unforgiving track event of them all. The women's race takes place inside the span of 11 seconds, leaving no room for error. Start slowly, as Richardson did, and the bell tolls for you.
Michelle Kwan, a two-time Olympian in figure skating in 1998 and 2002, was a five-time world champion and nine-time American national champion. She was favored to win gold in Nagano in 1998 but lost to Tara Lipinski, who pulled out a cleaner performance on the day. Kwan was again favored to take gold four years later in Salt Lake City, but a fall in the free skate dropped her to bronze position behind fellow American Sarah Hughes and Irina slu*tskaya of Russia.
As the favorite for gold in the 100-meter hurdles at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, Lolo Jones hit the ninth of 10 hurdles in the race and finished next-to-last.
American gymnast McKayla Maroney was heavily favored to win gold on the vault at the 2012 Games in London, especially after she completed what is widely regarded as one of the best vaults of all time, a high-flying Amanar (roundoff back handspring onto the vault table, two-and-a-half twists off), in the team final that helped the Americans win gold there. But she fell on the same vault in the event final, dropping her to silver but cementing her fame with a twisted smile on the podium that became a meme.
Mike Conley was the favorite to win gold in the triple jump at the 1988 Olympics. But he wore baggy shorts during the U.S. Olympic Trials that hit the ground nearly a foot before his feet did. The error cost him a trip to Seoul.
Perhaps it's a bad omen for Richardson that Kwan, Jones and Maroney never won individual golds. But she can take solace in the fact that Conley went on to win triple jump gold in 1992. At just 24 years old, Richardson could still be in her prime for the 2028 Olympics.
Richardson was the favorite to take gold three years ago in Tokyo. She won the 100m in the Olympic Trials in 10.86 and posted a 10.72 two months before the Trials. But her urine tested positive for THC, the product of recent marijuana use, after the Trials, and Richardson was banned from competition for one month in June 2021 by the United States Anti-Doping Agency—costing her the opportunity to compete at the Olympics. Richardson said she smoked marijuana to cope with the recent death of her biological mother.
Her comeback was heralded, and she proved she still had what it takes to be an Olympian with her performances over the last year. But while Richardson can still win a gold as part of a relay team, individual gold will have to wait four more years.
