According to media reports, on July 27, just days before the USATF national track championships in Eugene, Ore., Olympic relay gold medallist and reigning 100m world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, 25, was arrested and detained briefly after an incident at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington State. She was taken to SCORE South Correctional Entity in Des Moines, Wash. and released by court order the following afternoon.
This story has been updated.
The sprinter recorded an interview with LetsRun.com at Nationals; the subject of her arrest did not come up. Later reports Friday evening indicated Richardson was charged with fourth-degree domestic assault against her boyfriend, U.S. sprinter Christian Coleman, after an alleged shoving incident in the airport.
Richardson to race 200m
Richardson withdrew from the semi-finals of the women’s 100m at U.S. Nationals on Friday; as the reigning world champion in the event, she has a spot at this year’s World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, which start Sept. 12. She is reportedly still scheduled to race in the 200m preliminaries on Sunday in Eugene.
Coleman finished fifth in the men’s 100m final in Eugene Friday evening, which was won by Kenny Bednarek in 9.79s.
This is not the first time Richardson has been in trouble while travelling; in early 2023, she was removed from an American Airlines flight after an altercation with a flight attendant.
In 2021, she qualified for the Olympics in Tokyo but was subsequently suspended for one month after testing positive for THC, the chemical in cannabis, at the US Olympic Trials. As the defending world 100m champion, Richardson has an automatic wild card to the 2025 World Championships.Â
U.S. track star Sha’Carri Richardson removed from American Airlines flight
The sprinter rose to fame when she shattered the 100m collegiate record in her freshman year at Louisiana State University, and went on to win 100m gold at the 2023 world championships in Budapest, and 100m silver and 4 x 100m gold at Paris 2024.
