Stawell Gift ‘glorified practice’ but I’ll win, says Sha’Carri Richardson

Sha’Carri Richardson laughed out loud. Then she realised her manager was serious.

The world 100 metres champion, fifth-fastest woman in the world ever, Olympic silver medallist, member of multiple American gold medal-winning relay teams (including Olympics), and one of the biggest figures in world track and field was posed the question: how do you feel about racing in Stawell?

“What? Where?”

“The Stawell Gift, surely you’ve heard of it. It’s a race on grass on an oval in a small sheep farming town on the other side of the world?”

“Baa-ha ha. Good one. Wait, what? You’re serious? Why would I do that?”

“Think of it as a training run you get paid for.”

“You know, I’ve always liked Australia – they have those funny animals and nice beaches. Aren’t the Olympics down there soon?”

That’s close to verbatim the conversation that occurred when the idea of running in a small Victorian town on the other side of the world was proposed to the American superstar.

With that, Richardson, and her boyfriend Christian Coleman – barely a handbag in this arrangement, given he was world champion in 2019, the fastest man ever over 60 metres, and with world indoors gold medals to his name – agreed to compete at the Stawell Gift.

“When Emanuel [Hudson, her agent] presented the idea of coming [to Stawell], I definitely thought it was funny and unique. I definitely laughed and giggled before he said, ‘No, I am serious’,” Richardson said.

“So I was like, ‘OK, this is something I can come and do’, and I definitely thought this would be like a glorified practice. Like, being on grass, it reminds me of what I used to do, being a child running … we were just running in the field. I thought why not do that?”

Encouraged by moderator Jason Richardson, the amiable TV host and former Stawell Gift winner, to qualify that, once she understood the quality of the competition, she realised she might need to turn on the jets and extend herself, Richardson, the American, not the white bald Australian from Vermont South, held her ground.

“No, I still think it’s going to be practice – a glorified practice. I will put the glorified in front of it. It challenges me to do what it is I have been practicing to do.”

Of course it is. No one thinks Richardson is coming to Stawell from a burning desire to win the Gift and claim a place in athletics history. But who cares? She is also the greatest female sprinter to race in Victoria outside of a major championship, and she is so good that glorified practice or not she could still win on Easter Monday.

Even early in the racing season, off scratch, in a handicapped race, on grass, between ropes, in a small town on the other side of the world, she can win. She is that good.

She trains over 120m, but it is such a quirky distance no one races over it.

“We definitely do 120s in training, but competing over 120 is a different thing. I would definitely say the 120 is going to challenge me. It’s not something I have worked on before,” she said.

Longer spikes?

“If it came down to it, I could easily run barefoot. As long as we got grass, and I got feet, I am good,” she said.

“I am actually super-excited to experience to all of Australia, city life as well as country life. I was raised by my grandmother, she was a country girl, and we used to go visit all the time when I was younger.

“I feel like at home, doing a foot race, going to the country is something that reminds me of my inner child, my inner little girl racer is coming out, and I’m super excited. To feel skin on grass, I’m ready.”

Coleman was excited. At 30, the sport was still bringing him to places he hadn’t been and to do things he hadn’t done. It’s doubtful running in a small Wimmera sheep grazing town was on his bucket list, but visiting his sixth continent was.

He was also attracted to the origin of the 120m Gift distance deriving from a challenge between drinkers in two rival South Yorkshire pubs to decide who was the quicker to run between the pubs 130 yards apart (130 yards in the old, 120 metres in the new, but a pint is still a pint in the pub).

“This is my first time in Australia. I can officially cross off my sixth continent. To be this far in my career and still have new experiences, and come to an event I have never been to, [and] I had never really heard of before – it is really exciting to be part of,” Coleman said.

To secure this couple, the glamour couple of sprinting and two of the greatest sprinters the world has seen, for a country Victorian town is extraordinary. It is due, again, in large part to the largesse of Sandy McGregor, the low-key Wimmera businessman and philanthropist who funded Gout Gout racing there last year, and stumped up again to bring the American superstar couple out.

Every girl and woman in that race is never likely to race anyone like her, certainly not in conditions like that. No one at the track is ever going to see a world and olympic champion and one of the greatest female sprinters the world has ever in an environment like it. Sha’Carri is right – it is glorious.

When she says it is a glorified practice, words can deceive. You have to remind yourself how a world champion trains. Her jog is your sprint. Her sweat is your heart attack.

So it began as a laugh – it was rationalised as a glorified training, and now it’s becoming a race.

“I believe I can win this weekend and I will do everything in my power to win this weekend – I’m not going to leave the grass without leaving everything on the grass,” she said.

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