A day before Christmas, the World Athletics posted a nod to American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson’s accomplishments this year, seemingly out of the blue, which caused an outrage among fans in the comments section.
World Athletics shared a graphic of American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson on their X and Instagram accounts, showing all of her sub-11 records this year, ranging from her 10.97-second record at the Gyulai István Memorial in Hungary to her lightning-fast 10.57-second record at the 2023 Miramar Invitational.
Appreciation post only for Richardson?
And fans couldn’t help but wonder why it was only Sha’Carri Richardson who got an appreciation post when Jamaican sprinters Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce likewise had an amazing stint and equally stellar records this year.
SUB-11 ALL THE WAY ‼️
Take a bow for @itskerrii's 100m season 😤 pic.twitter.com/VKI6SmRWCJ
— World Athletics (@WorldAthletics) December 24, 2023
While the X users were mostly supportive of the post on X, save for one Spanish fan who commented, ‘Shelly Ann Fraser will need about 10 circles because she has more than 80 times sub 11’, the fans on Instagram had a different reaction.
Fans enraged on Instagram
A fan questioned the inclusion of the 10.57-second record, considering that it benefited from a tailwind of +4.1 meters per second.
The fan wrote, “10:57 so @worldathletics we are being bias and adding wind-aided times now? What about the other athletes whom were wind-aided. Stop the foolishness and take this down.”
While another surmised that an American must have been running their social media accounts, since it was really Jackson, not Richardson who had a dominant year.
The fan wrote, “This page is American ran because she didn’t have the best year in track but she is being pushed over Jackson who has showed true dominance.”
One fan also demanded that she see more posts about Jamaican female athletes.
View this post on Instagram
Fans defend Richardson
Seeing all the unwarranted comparisons to other athletes and hate comments, some fans rushed to Richardson’s defense and said that it was sad to see them hating on an American just because she was catching up to their records.
Richardson also received encouragement from a fan to just ignore the hate, to keep up her hard work going forward, and to think of her medals as the best form of revenge.
Cover Photo: IG