THE BEAUTY OF BEING SHA’CARRI RICHARDSON
Allow Sha’Carri Richardson to reintroduce herself. Three years ago, the track star made history at the Tokyo Olympic trials with a record-breaking run in the 100-meter dash. But it was her fiery orange wig, full face beat, and crystal-studded acrylic nails—a look she described at the time as “loud and encouraging and, honestly, dangerous”—that cemented her status as one of the biggest icons in sports history. The moment was short-lived, though. After testing positive for THC, the intoxicant found in marijuana, her future in the sport suddenly seemed up in the air. It was one of the hardest things she’s ever been through, but it was also a big lesson in learning to ignore negative “energies and opinions,” she says now.
Since then, Richardson has come to terms with the fact that the way she presents herself—personally and professionally, both on and off the track—will be endlessly picked apart. “If they can’t find one thing to talk about, they’ll find another,” she tells me over Zoom a few weeks before the 2024 Olympics. And right now, all anyone can talk about is Richardson’s big return.
At trials for the Paris Games last month, she sported a more natural black hair color, which she styled into an effortless ponytail. She wore minimal makeup, and her lashes were much shorter—maybe a little mascara, nothing more. “I wanted to focus on competing at my best, and my look reflected that,” she says. “It was clean, fresh, and fast.”
Even with an unsteady start, Richardson finished the race strong. Her time in the 100-meter earned her the title of fastest woman in the world and also helped secure her spot on the 2024 Olympic team. And while her beauty may have been different, her signature swagger was still there. Two seconds before crossing the finish line, lightyears ahead of everyone else, she pounded her chest in celebration. “All I needed to do was execute,” she says. “I knew I could do it, and I did.”
Richardson is now positioned to make one of the biggest comebacks in sports history. But for her, Paris is also an opportunity to remind the world who she is—and what she’s capable of achieving. “That’s just authentically who I am,” she says. “I never play small, this is how I show up in life.”
Going to the Olympics is an extraordinary feat for any athlete, but for Richardson this moment has a bigger meaning. In 2019, she became one of the ten fastest women in track history, after breaking the 100-meter collegiate record at the NCAA Championships. As she rose to fame, her family back home encouraged her to consider the responsibility of her new platform. “Not in a bad way,” she says. “Just how I want to present myself.”
One week before the Tokyo Olympic trials in 2021, Richardson found out from a sports reporter that her biological mother had passed away. She admitted to using marijuana as a coping mechanism, which led to a one-month suspension and caused her to miss the Tokyo Olympics. “I am human,” she wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter. In a follow-up interview with NBC, Richardson said, “I didn’t know how to control my emotions or deal with my emotions during that time.”
As she dealt with the devastating loss, Richardson was also contending with trolls on social media who didn’t understand her bright hair colors and long nails. One commenter even deemed her look “ratchet.” Beauty trends rooted in Black culture have historically become more palatable when represented on white bodies; and what’s lauded as expressive on some can be criticized as ghetto or attention-seeking on Black women, who are often the original architects of these styles.
White athletes don’t always receive the same kinds of critiques that Black athletes do, especially when it comes to bold beauty choices. For example, USWNT star Megan Rapinoe’s purplish-pink pompadour in Tokyo was applauded and even given its own nickname: the “Rapinkoe.” But Black women have “different obligations,” Richardson says. “And once you’re viewed differently, you have to have a certain understanding of yourself.”
At the U.S. Track and Field Championships in July 2023, Richardson made a big statement. Before getting into the starting blocks, she yanked off her signature orange wig and grinned. The moment was a symbolic shift, and one that paid homage to what she’d been through and where she planned to go next. Looking back now, she says the decision to experiment with the new look was also, in part, inspired by her family. “My grandmother, my aunt, and my mother all influence the beauty I exude to the world on a day-to-day basis, especially in big moments,” she says. “They kept their nails well-manicured. Hair was also something that I saw a lot of attentiveness to.”
All eyes were on Richardson again one month later at the World Athletics Championships in Hungary, where she picked up two golds and a bronze medal. This time, she raced with winged eyeliner, a muted red lip, and white floral nails. Her cornrows were styled to include a cross on the side of her head, and the back of her hair featured red and yellow braided highlights resembling colorful ribbons. “I’m not back, I’m better,” she told reporters after the meet.
The changes weren’t to placate the public, she says, but rather to further express herself. “My looks are always mixed up,” Richardson explains. “You never know what you’re going to get when it comes to me.” At her final track event of the 2023 season, she opted out of wearing a wig or braids at all, and instead showcased her natural curls, telling reporters, “I had to pull out the natural.” She has continued going back to basics, posing for her official Team USA 2024 Olympic portraits rocking her natural hair color and a bronzed smokey eye. In one photo, she holds up her long, signature eclectic nails.
Richardson is trying out different hairstyles—a ponytail one day, a braided ponytail another—but her makeup remains muted for the most part. “I can’t put [makeup] on by myself, so I don’t wear it,” she explains. At most, she lines her eyes and swipes on mascara. “I’m being more attentive and appreciative of all of my beauty looks.”
It makes sense then that Richardson would choose a skin care brand like Olay for her first-ever beauty partnership. Earlier this year, she helped unveil the brand’s dissolvable Cleansing Melts pads, which activate when mixed with water. “It’s very hydrating. It doesn’t leave you as dry as I know other things have felt in the past,” she says.
Whether bare-faced or in full glam—wearing an orange wig or rocking box braids—Richardson innately understands the power of beauty. It’s taken time and some introspection, but the Olympian has never been more confident in who she is or what she stands for. “I’m more attentive and more appreciative of all my beauty looks,” she says. “I’m just growing into a bigger appreciation of all the beauty that I have.”