Right before Sha’Carri Richardson crossed the finish line in the women’s 4X100 relay at the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, she gazed over to her right to make sure she was in first place.
She was. With Richardson running the final leg, Team USA won the gold medal for the third time in the last four Olympic Games with a time of 41.78 seconds. And Richardson’s look over her right shoulder swept social media and became known as the “Sha’Carri Stare.”
“Honestly, that look over, if I had to just highlight anything, the look over was—it’s almost like it was a mirror on that side of me, and I’m just looking at a version of myself that nobody but me could see, if that makes sense,” Richardson said in an interview with Refinery 29. “I looked over and I just knew that no matter what was going on, there was nobody that I was going to allow—even myself—to be in front of me. I know that sounds crazy, but I was in that lane and feeling like I’m always my biggest competitor [so I had to] leave my best on the track.
“I was just like, ‘There’s no way that I’m not going to leave my best on the track.’ And so just looking over, it was more so showing that the hard work that all of us ladies in that 4X100 put in was not going to be in vain. I wasn’t going to even allow myself to not cross that finish line in first place and not get that medal, or to let down those ladies and the support that we received when it comes to us crossing the finish line, in first place as Team USA.”
Richardson wasn’t in first place when she received the baton from teammate Gabby Thomas, but she cruised to the finish line ahead of silver medalist Great Britain and bronze medalist Germany in a split of 10.09 seconds.
The 24-year-old departed Paris with two medals—the gold in the women’s 4X100 and a silver medal in the women’s 100-meter dash.