Three years ago, then-21-year-old Sha’Carri Richardson announced her arrival on the world stage in a big way with a 10.86 victory at the 2021 U.S. Trials, only to have her hopes of Olympic glory dashed a few weeks later with a controversial positive test for marijuana use.

Fast forward to 2024, where Sha’Carri headed into Trials a totally different athlete. She’s the reigning World champion, the 5th fastest woman in history, and a strong favorite for gold in Paris, as well as an NBC media darling headlining ad campaigns for major brands and TV spots with Cardi B.

There have been high highs and low lows over the last few years for the dynamic and fiery sprinter, ranging from the untimely loss of her mother in 2021 and an injury-plagued 2022 to a fast-growing stack of gold medals on the national and international stage. It wasn’t a surprise to see Richardson take the win and world lead in 10.71, but with every competition, the consistency that evaded Sha’Carri early in her career gets more solidified and it becomes easier to think of her as the country’s best shot at 100 meter Olympic gold.

As the women’s 100m wrapped up, the men’s 100m is just getting underway as Noah Lyles led all qualifiers in 9.92 and 2019 World champion Christian Coleman looked perhaps the best of all contenders with an easy-peasy 9.99 heat win. 7x NCAA champ Jasmine Moore showed a bit of the clutch performance that made her such a dominant collegiate athlete with a 6th-round winning jump of 14.26m in the women’s triple jump, and Arkansas’s Kaylyn Brown and New Balance’s Kendall Ellis led all qualifiers for the 400m final with a pair of sub-50 performances.

While we’re coming off a sprint-heavy weekend, the men’s 1500m final is now set for Monday with all the favorites still in play, led by Yared Nuguse’s championship record-tying 3:34.09 in the semifinal and another heat win for 2021 Trials champ Cole Hocker. With Hobbs Kessler, Cooper Teare, and a whole bunch of speedy collegians in the mix, the battle for those three spots will be fierce.

What To Watch On Day 3

We’ll find out once and for all who the American contenders are for world’s fastest man, as we have the men’s 100m final wrapping up action on Sunday evening. Noah Lyles and Christian Coleman are looking as strong as they did when they went 1-2 at World Indoors, but could a resurgent Fred Kerley or the ever-consistent Kenny Bednarek mix things up near the front?

An evenly-matched steeplechase field could shake out in any sort of combination between six or seven different contenders, and the old guard of Kendall Ellis and Shamier Little takes on young guns Kaylyn Brown and Aaliyah Butler in the 400m. Plus, the top three spots in the men’s pole vault and women’s hammer throw get decided among a field of global medal contenders — these are two events where the winner at U.S. Trials has a good shot at a medal in Paris as well.

Follow along with live results here and on the CITIUS MAG social channels.

Race Of The Day: Women's 100m

Sha’Carri Richardson taking the win wasn’t a huge surprise. But the dominance of her training group, the Star Athletics crew helmed by coach Dennis Mitchell, had to come as a bit of a surprise.

For those paying attention to the sprints, 2022 U.S. champ Melissa Jefferson landing on the podium was not a huge shock as Jefferson has been quietly putting together a banner season, clocking a 10.94 in April and a 5th-place finish at the Prefontaine Classic before her lifetime best 10.80 to take second behind her training partner last night.

But it was a bit of a surprise to see TeeTee Terry, who’d only run 11.19 before the Trials, progress through the rounds from 11.07 to 11.04 to 10.89, running her best race of the season when it counted most to take third and land a spot on her first Olympic team. Her clutch performance is also a boon to Team USA, who’s relied on Terry to be an essential part of the gold-medal-winning 4×100m teams each of the last two World Championships.

The expression “iron sharpens iron” could apply to any of a handful of professional training groups in the U.S., from the Gainseville-based adidas sprinters to the Brooks Beasts in Seattle. But in a sport so often associated with national flags and individual achievement, the team element of championship racing can easily get overlooked. The NCAA system is successful because it brings the best runners in the world together — particularly in the sprints — and allows them to learn from each other and push one another in practice, ultimately to the benefit of the program and its fans. So whenever we see a show of dominance like Star Athletics showed us in Eugene, we have to remember just how much results on race day are informed by the company we keep in training.

Athlete Of The Day: Ryan Crouser

In some ways, it’s unsurprising to see the two-time Olympic champion take yet another U.S. title, as shot put GOAT Ryan Crouser claimed another Trials win in 22.84m in the fourth round of competition.

But the Oregon native hasn’t exactly had a flawless 2024 campaign, with a series of injuries following his World Indoor gold back in March. Crouser has dealt with a series of hiccups in training including a torn pec and an injury to the nerve in his elbow and hadn’t competed at all this outdoor season, but after notching a safe qualifying mark of 21.44m in the qualifying round of the shot put he was back to his normal standards of excellence.

It’s one thing to decimate the field when everything is going smoothly and the world records are coming fast and easy. It’s another to deliver when training hasn’t been ideal and setbacks have gotten in the way. But the all-time greats earn that title by delivering year in and year out, in good times and in bad. We saw it at Worlds in 2023 when the big man came back from blood clots in his leg to take his fourth global title, and we saw it in Eugene last night. Crouser’s prodigious talent is one important tool in his belt: another is the ability to perform under adversity that would leave many other athletes on the sidelines.

Photo Of The Day

It was a total lovefest between UNC’s Ethan Strand and Villanova’s Liam Murphy in the semifinals of the men’s 1500m. Together with Nathan Green and Joe Waskom of Washington and Elliott Cook of Oregon, 5 of the 12 Trials finalists in the event come straight from the NCAA.

Social Moment To Remember

It was verrrrry interesting to see a black-clad Fred Kerley wearing Nike spikes and repping Oakley but no other major sponsor in the first round of the men’s 100m.