According to media reports, on July 27, just days before the USATF national track championships in Eugene, Ore., Olympic relay gold medallist and reigning 100m world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, 25, was arrested and detained briefly after an incident at Seattle-Tacoma International Airport in Washington state. She was taken to SCORE South Correctional Entity in Des Moines, Wash.; no charges were listed, and Richardson was released by court order the following afternoon.

The sprinter recorded an interview with LetsRun.com at Nationals; the subject of her arrest did not come up.

LetsRun.com now reports that Richardson has dropped out of US Nationals.

No further information was available at the time of publication.

Sha’Carri Richardson 🇺🇸 has withdrawn from the 100m & 200m at the US Championships in Eugene.

She was initially listed for both and was billed to run the 100m heats alongside the full 200m rounds, but has now reportedly withdrawn from the 200m as well. pic.twitter.com/lyQQrz64SR

— Track & Field Gazette (@TrackGazette) August 1, 2025

 

This is not the first time Richardson has been in trouble while travelling; in early 2023, she was removed from an American Airlines flight after an altercation with a flight attendant.

In 2021, she qualified for the Olympics in Tokyo but was subsequently suspended for one month after testing positive for THC, the chemical in cannabis, at the US Olympic Trials. As the defending world 100m champion, Richardson has an automatic wild card to the 2025 World Championships. 

U.S. track star Sha’Carri Richardson removed from American Airlines flight

The sprinter rose to fame when she shattered the 100m collegiate record in her freshman year at Louisiana State University, and went on to win 100m gold at the 2023 world championships in Budapest, and 100m silver and 4 x 100m gold at Paris 2024.