Olympic Fave Sha'Carri Richardson Was Nearly a Red Raider

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There's a ton of buzz about Sha'Carri Richardson, a young athlete that very well may be the fastest woman in the world right now.

Richardson is a native Texan, and was very nearly a Red Raider. Ultimately, she chose to run track for LSU, but this Texas Techsan still has my "guns up" for her.

As you can see from this tweet from Sha'Carri's Twitter account in 2017, she toured the Lubbock campus and ran on Texas Tech's field. She even snapped some pictures with Raider Red and the Masked Rider. She looks so amazing in our red & black.

We reached out to Texas Tech University to find out more about Sha'Carri Richardson's visit and how close she really was to being a Red Raider. Jeremy O'Brien, assistant director for Athletics Communications at Texas Tech, told us that according to Track & Field Head Coach Wes Kittley, Sha'Carri "loved" her visit to the campus, but that LSU was ultimately her first choice. And for good reason: their women's track & field team is one of the best out there. Richardson did tell Coach Kittley that Texas Tech was her number 2 pick.

Texas Tech is, however, also well represented at the Olympic trials. Here's a list from the school's website:

Current Red Raiders

Justin Hall – Long jump (June 25th)
Monae' Nichols – Long jump (June 24th)
Seasons Usual – Discus (June 18th)

Former Red Raiders
Charles Brown – Long jump (June 25th)
Vincent Crisp – 800m (June 18th)
Trey Culver – High jump (June 25th)
Andrew Hudson – 200m (June 25th)
Duke Kicinski – Discus (June 24th)
Benard Keter – 3000m Steeplechase (June 21st)
Gil Roberts – 400m (June 18th)

It's been a quarter of a decade since the U.S. has won the 100m dash, and Sha'Carri Richardson is our best hope in a long time for gold. Her lightning fast personal record of 10.72 seconds has only ever been beaten by absolute giants of the sport: Florence Griffith Joyner, Carmelita Jeter, Marion Jones, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah.

I'm thrilled for Sha'Carri Richardson to make Texas proud.