Sha'Carri Richardson will race against three Jamaican sprinters who swept Olympic podium in 100-meter dash after she was banned from Tokyo over marijuana use
Sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, who was ruled out of the Tokyo Olympics after being temporarily banned for testing positive for cannabis, is set to race all three Olympic 100-meter medalists at a meet in Eugene, Oregon next week.
The 21-year-old Richardson will race Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson in the Prefontaine Classic next Saturday at the University of Oregon's Hayward Field.
The trio finished in the top three podium places in Tokyo.
Sha'Carri Richardson will race against three Jamaican sprinters who swept Olympic podium in 100-meter dash after she was banned from Tokyo over marijuana use
It was a Jamaican clean sweep in the Women's 100m in Tokyo as Elaine Thompson-Herah took gold, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in second and Shericka Jackson in third
The race is a glimpse into what might have been had Richardson not failed her drugs test which saw her agree to a one-month suspension from the U.S. Anti-Doping Agency.
US Anti-Doping Agency CEO Travis Tygart called the situation 'heartbreaking on many levels.'
Saturday's race will see six of the eight women who all raced in the Tokyo 100-meter final and could give an indication as to how Richardson might would have fared.
'Sha'Carri is focused on running a good race since she last competed at the US Olympic Trials,' her agent, Renaldo Nehemiah, said to The Wall Street Journal. 'She will be focused on executing her race to the best of her ability regardless of who is in the race.'
Richardson had streaked to victory in the 100m at the US Olympic trials in June, and was expected to be one of the top stars at the Games in Japan.
With the top six breaking the 11-second mark, this final ranked as one of the quickest in history
Elaine Herah-Thompson, left, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, center, and Shericka Jackson all of Jamaica are pictured on the podium
She represented the best US chance of a first gold since Gail Devers won in 1996, and after Marion Jones was stripped of the 2000 title for doping offenses.
But things unraveled for her after she won the US trials with an impressive 10.86s and tested positive for cannabis and was banned for a month, which ruled her out of the tournament.
Richardson said she was dealing with the death of her mother at the time and the United States Anti-Doping Agency said that her ban was reduced to one month because she had used cannabis out of competition and it was unrelated to sport performance.
Although her suspension from the sport ended before the women's 100m race at the Olympics, failing the drug-test led to the scrapping of the US trials performance she would have needed to qualify for the team.
Sha'Carri said after she was removed from the team that she ingested marijuana while grieving her biological mother whose death she found out about from a reporter