the Olympic 100m will have to count on the Americans Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson – Libération

The two reigning world champions arrived in great shape at the American selections which take place until next Sunday in Oregon. The first equaled his record over the distance, the second set the best time of the season.

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One month before the Paris Games, Team USA is starting to take shape. For the premier discipline of athletics, the 100 meters, the Olympic selections quite logically led this weekend to the qualification of the two reigning world champions, Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson.

“I’m ready,” smiled Noah Lyles after his race in Eugene, Oregon. In Paris, the triple world champion in Budapest last summer (100, 200, 4x100m) will aim for an unprecedented quadruple while hoping for selection in the 4x400m. Over 100m, he won in 9″83 (0.4 m/s wind), equaling his record, ahead of Kenny Bednarek (9″87, also a personal best), usual specialist in the 200m, and the vice-champion Olympic Fred Kerley (9″88), all three qualifying for the 100m at the Olympics.

Dressed all in red, after his white suit from the series on Saturday, Noah Lyles put on a show as usual before, during, and after the race, controlled, with a strong start and a powerful finish. This former 200m specialist, disappointed by his bronze medal at the Tokyo Games in 2021, is so far flawless in his quest for Olympic gold which is missing from his record. A tireless showman, Lyles once again used multiple displays during the start of these “trials”, with an entry into the stadium enclosure in costume on Sunday alongside rapper Snoop Dogg, or even a reference to “pop culture” as he loves it by presenting at the start of the series with a powerful card from the game Yu-Gi-Oh! out of his suit.

On the women’s side, Sha’Carri Richardson brilliantly erased on Saturday the bad memory of her 2021 suspension, which deprived her of the Tokyo Olympic Games. In 10″71 (0.8 m/s wind), the best world time of the season, the flamboyant sprinter dominated the American selections. “Work pays,” said the champion, who on Saturday beat two training partners, Melissa Jefferson (10″80) and Twanisha Terry (10″89), who will accompany her in the 100m in Paris: “This race confirms all our work. I look forward to continuing to progress from today’s result and our momentum.”

Before signing the miniature Eiffel Tower installed after the finish line, Richardson climbed into the stands, in tears, to hug her grandmother, the woman who raised her in Dallas to compensate for her mother’s shortcomings. Richardson said he used marijuana to cope with the death of his “biological mother” a few days before the Olympic selections in 2021. His suspension marked the start of a small descent into hell (questionable statements, excesses on social networks, non-selection for the 2022 World Championships).

Noah Lyles and Sha’Carri Richardson will be back on the track Thursday to try to qualify in the 200m.