Julien Alfred won the gold, bringing the first-ever Olympic medal to her island country of Saint Lucia.
U.S. runner got a surprise silver on Saturday after being narrowly beaten by Saint Lucia runner Julien Alfred.
Alfred romped in the rain to the 100-meter title in 10.72 seconds to bring the first-ever Olympic medal to her island country of Saint Lucia.
Racing one lane to the left of Richardson, and with water from a fast-moving storm puddling on the purple track in the Stade de France, Alfred got off to a fantastic start, then powered through the rain and beat Richardson by .15 seconds – about three body lengths.
It was the biggest margin in the women’s Olympic 100 since 2008, when Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won by .20 to headline a Jamaican sweep.
Richardson’s training partner, American Melissa Jefferson, finished third in 10.92 seconds.
All week long, the field seemed to be clearing for Richardson, the who was making her Olympic debut after a positive test for marijuana cost her a chance to race three years ago in Tokyo.
When Fraser-Pryce abruptly withdrew from the semifinal, which went off about 90 minutes before the gold-medal race, the entire Jamaican team that had swept the podium in Tokyo was out of the 100.
One island’s loss is another’s gain.
The strongest contender left was Alfred, who hails from the Eastern Caribbean island with a population of around 180,000 and, legend has it, caught the attention of her school librarian while running against boys in first and second grades.
