BUDAPEST, Hungary — Track, and fame, can be brutal games. Nobody felt that more over the past two years than American sprinter Sha’Carri Richardson.
On a sultry Monday night a half-world away from where her problems began, the 23-year-old earned a gold medal at world championships in the biggest 100-meter race this side of the Olympics.
Her victory, in 10.65 seconds over Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson and five-time world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, capped a comeback two years in the making and made good on the mantra she’s been reciting all year — and repeated yet again after her latest victory: “I’m not back. I’m better.”
Two summers ago after Olympic trials in Eugene, Oregon, Richardson’s road to the Tokyo Games was roadblocked by a positive test for marijuana. Her name turned into a litmus test in a wide-ranging debate about race, fairness, the often-impenetrable anti-doping rulebook and, ultimately, about the sometimes razor-thin line between right and wrong.
Richardson said she soaked it all in, surrounded herself with supporters and tried to drown out the rest.
“I would say, ‘Never…
