Sha'Carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas set their past differences aside at the 2024 Paris Olympics to help propel Team USA into the 4x100m Relay Final .
On Thursday, the American quartet of Richardson , Thomas, Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry won their heat with a leading time of 41.94 seconds. Germany (42.15) and Switzerland (42.38) finished second and third, thereby automatically qualifying for Friday’s final at the Stade de France.
100m bronze medalist Jefferson ran the opening leg of the relay and passed the baton onto Terry for the far straight. But the 25-year-old had a shaky handover to Thomas, allowing Germany to assume the lead.
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Thomas managed to cleanly exchange the baton with Richardson, who delivered an incredible anchor leg to speed past Rebekka Haase and claim a first-place finish for the U.S.
In the second heat, Great Britain crossed the line first in 42.03 seconds, followed close behind by fellow qualifiers France (42.13) and Jamaica (42.35). Canada and the Netherlands additionally advanced to the final with the fastest non-automatic qualifying times of 42.50 and 42.64, respectively.
The 4x100m relay will be Richardson’s last chance to secure an Olympic gold medal at the Paris Games, which would additionally be the first of her career. Last week, she won silver in the women’s 100m, coming in second behind Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred.
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Taking to Instagram after qualifying for the final, Richardson posted a story outside the Stade de France with the words “One MORE RACE” alongside an emoji holding back tears.
As for Thomas, the 27-year-old clinched gold in the women's 200m , which she previously won in the U.S. Olympic trials back in June. Richardson, meanwhile, failed to qualify for the event after placing fourth in the trials at Hayward Field.
Back in 2021, Thomas and Richardson publicly butted heads ahead of the Tokyo Games. The latter had her Olympic dreams crushed after receiving a suspension for testing positive for marijuana, which she claimed to be using as a coping mechanism to deal with the unexpected death of her biological mom.
In support of Richardson, many fans threatened to boycott watching the Olympics - sparking a fiery response from Thomas. "It really hurts to see so many black people choosing not to watch the Olympics this year," she wrote on social media in response to those who were spurning the Tokyo Games.
"There are so many black athletes who have put in YEARS of hard work for this moment- myself included. We want your support."
Thomas’ comments did not sit well with Richardson, who took direct aim at the American in a tweet that she later deleted. "Athletes that haven’t and will never beat me have a lot to say about or surrounding my situation," she wrote.
"When most of them have said nothing to me showing their characters that y’all don’t see behind the races. The attention that is on track now was because of very very few names. So if that’s where fans support lay, you can’t be mad at that."
It appears as though the duo’s beef is now water under the bridge, with both Team USA stars solely focused on earning gold in the 4x100m.
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