PERSPECTIVE: Sha’Carri Richardson’s overcoming is better than gold

Sha’Carri Richardson’s performance at the 100-meter final at the 2024 Olympics should have crowned her as one of the world’s top sprinters. Paris was to mark an overcoming after removal from the 2021 games for testing positive for marijuana.Richardson was supposed to win gold and prove the naysayers wrong about her character as an athlete. She was to blast past the trauma of hearing about the death of her biological mother from a reporter. She was to move through her grief and depression and her last-place finish in the 100-meter race at the Prefontaine Classic following her Tokyo suspension.It was supposed to be that inspirational Hollywood ending for the mercurial Richardson. But in the real world, things rarely turn out that way.Richardson finished second and got the silver medal. In the race itself, St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred got off to a better start and came away with a convincing upset win over Richardson. What struck me about Richardson’s second-place finish was some of the social media reactions that she choked or just wasn’t clutch enough to win. To some, it was a disappointing performance because she won the silver medal.& To some, Richardson’s second-place finish was a failure.Really?To get a...