Sha'Carri Richardson explains viral stare down at Olympics

Unless you've been living under a rock, you've seen the viral photo of Team USA sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson from the 2024 Paris Olympics.

The moment saw Richardson looking over her right shoulder and staring down her opponents en route to a gold medal finish in the 4x100m relay. The stare down was quickly dubbed the "Shar'Carri Stare" and captivated fans even more than the sprinter's first-ever Olympic gold medal.

So, what led to Richardson side-eyeing her opponents?

In an interview with Refinery29 , the 24-year-old revealed the stare down was more about herself and her Team USA teammates than the sprinters from Great Britain and Germany she cold-bloodedly gazed over.

"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 explained. "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."

The Dallas native added she wasn't willing to let her teammates down after the sacrifices they collectively made to master the 4x100m relay. As such, she wanted to create a highlight — in the spur of the moment — that would not just live in Olympic lore but make her teammates proud of her.

"It [the stare] was more so showing that the hard work that all of us ladies in that 4x1 put in was not going to be in vain," Richardson stressed.

Team USA was in third place in the 4x100m relay when Richardson received the baton from Gabby Thomas in the final leg. She would run a dominant anchor leg to secure gold for her country, just days after she won silver in the 100m final. It's safe to say she did make her teammates proud.

Richardson entered the Paris Games under immense scrutiny after being disqualified from the Tokyo Games three years ago due to a positive test for marijuana.