U.S. sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson has been in the news over the past month or so after she failed a drug test following her stunning Olympic qualifying 100-meter race win. She’s since appeared in a Beats commercial soundtracked by new Kanye West music, but she’s unfortunately still not taking part in the Tokyo 2020 Olympics. In a tweet shared on Friday, Richardson appeared to ruffle a few feathers with a simple question regarding her absence.
“Missing me yet?” she wrote to a mixed response. Some expressed their support for her, calling her a shoe-in to win the races she was originally set to take part in, while others felt her competition would fare better. Of particular note, supporters of Jamaica’s Olympic team are happier with Richardson not at the Olympics solely by virtue of them having a better chance of winning that way.
Some also criticized her for having the audacity to ask the question, though. “Was she planning to exert all her energy in the heats?!” wrote one Twitter user, who got a reply from Richardson herself.
“If you don’t like what I tweet you can definitely unfollow me,” she wrote. “If you choose to think of all my tweets as petty and shady then you should unfollow me showing your own character but you don’t use my tweets to do it. … Have a day.”
Even retired four-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Michael Johnson chimed in. “This is an interesting tweet sent on the day we see the women in Toko running blazing fast times in the prelims to making the women’s 100 final look like it could be one of the greatest with who’s here,” he wrote.
As reported early in July, the 21-year-old sprinter tested positive for a prohibited substance during June’s U.S. Olympic Trials, where she landed a spot on Team USA. It was later confirmed that she had tested positive for THC, and was given a one-month suspension for her marijuana use. She admitted she smoked weed because she was “blinded by emotions” in the wake of her mother’s death.
Check out reactions to her tweet below.
