Olympic sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson arrested on domestic assault charge in Seattle

New York Times

2 days ago

EUGENE, Ore. — Sha'Carri Richardson was arrested Sunday at the Seattle Tacoma International Airport after an incident with her boyfriend, fellow sprinter Christian Coleman, per a police report obtained by The Athletic from the Port of Seattle Police Department.
The incident, first reported by LetsRun.com, landed Richardson in custody for just shy of 19 hours at the SCORE South Correctional Entity.
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The police report described an incident at the TSA security checkpoint. Richardson, the arresting officer detailed, got into a heated argument with Coleman — who told the officer Richardson was his girlfriend of two years, though the couple didn't go public with their relationship until February. The arresting officer witnessed Richardson shove Coleman multiple times as Coleman walked away from Richardson — footage caught on security camera — and deemed it enough probable cause to arrest Richardson. The offense was listed as a fourth-degree domestic violence assault.
According to the report, the case has been cleared, Coleman has not pressed charges and 'declined to be a victim.'
Both Richardson and Coleman raced in Thursday's preliminary rounds. Richardson posted a time of 11.07 seconds in the first round of the women's 100-meter competition. Coleman ran 10.08 in his heat. Both advanced to Thursday evening's final.
USA Track and Field declined to comment.
Richardson — who won silver in the 100 meters in Paris and gold in the 4×100 meter women's relay — hadn't raced for eight months before returning to action in May. Thursday's heat was her third race of 2025 and her best time. She felt good afterwards and was in a good mood following the race as she talked to the media.
'Right now,' she said, 'I'm cruising under the radar, but when it's time to hit — it's gonna be a bang where y'all see my name.'
Richardson, however, withdrew from the 100-meter competition. As the reigning World Champion in the 100 meters, she already has an automatic bid to the 2025 World Championships in Tokyo. So Thursday's run was possibly always a practice session. Noah Lyles, who has an automatic bid in the men's 100 meters, also announced he was pulling out of the 100-meter final on Friday. As did Gabby Thomas, who was likely using the 100-meter race as prep for her main event, the 200 meters.
But Richardson doesn't have an automatic qualifier in the 200, the final for which is scheduled for Saturday. She won bronze in 2023 behind Thomas and winner, Shericka Jackson, of Jamaica.