Sha'Carri Richardson
EUGENE, OREGON - JUNE 19: Sha'Carri Richardson runs and celebrates in the Women's 100 Meter semifinal on day 2 of the 2020 U.S. Olympic Track & Field Team Trials at Hayward Field on June 19, 2021 in Eugene, Oregon. (Photo by Patrick Smith/Getty Images)

Track Star Sha’Carri Richardson Suspended From US Olympic Team For Positive Marijuana Drug Test, Twitter Lights a Blunt In Her Honor

By Mandatory Editors

If you didn’t know the name Sha’Carri Richardson, you do now. The 21-year-old track star was just suspended from the U.S. Olympic team because she failed a drug test, likely dashing any hope of competing in the 2021 Tokyo Summer Games.

Why is this athlete’s drama relevant – and sending the internet into a tizzy? Because the drug Richardson tested positive for was…wait for it…THC.

Why pot is illegal in the Olympics (but hardly anywhere else these days, including the state she used it in) is beyond us. It’s not even a performance-enhancing drug. (In fact, running is about the last thing we want to do after we get high.) And yet, a little cannabis-induced pick-me-up is apparently enough to kill an athlete’s dreams.

Richardson appeared on the Today show to explain herself. She shared how learning of her biological mother’s recent death – from a reporter no less – was “triggering” and that she used marijuana as a way to cope.

“(I’m) not making an excuse or looking for any empathy in my case, but, however, being in that position in my life, finding out something like that, something that I would say is probably one of the biggest things that have impacted me … that definitely was a very heavy topic on me,” she said. “People don’t understand what it’s like to have to … go in front of the world and put on a face and hide my pain. Who am I to tell you how to cope when you’re dealing with the pain or you’re dealing with a struggle that you haven’t experienced before or that you thought you never would have to deal with?”

We don’t judge you, Sha’Carri. We’ve had far less valid reasons to get high. It’s the Olympics committee that’s in the wrong here, with its antiquated rules.

Judging by the reactions on Twitter, most people stand behind Richardson. We’ve rounded up the best, the fiercest, and the funniest of the bunch. At least we can get a laugh out of this, right? (And to be clear, we’re laughing with her, not at her.)

Keep running, Sha’Carri. In fact, could you run down to the dispensary and get some more weed for us, too? We can hate-watch the Summer Games stoned, together. Who needs an Olympic torch when you could smoke a blunt instead?

Cover Photo: Patrick Smith / Staff (Getty Images)
Mandatory Editors
Mandatory Editors

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