DALLAS — If you've watched Sha'Carri Richardson run in the Olympics this year, you've likely seen her biggest fan and supporter cheering her on in the stands.
Her grandmother Betty Harp, a.k.a. "Big Momma."
Harp is frequently seen at Richardson's races, and the NBC cameras have been quick to find her in Paris.
And for good reason.
Richardson, a Dallas native, has talked at length about the significance of Harp's role in her life.
Richardson's personal family experiences came to the forefront in 2021, when she failed a marijuana test that forced her to miss the Olympics in Tokyo. Richardson later explained that she used marijuana in the wake of learning that her biological mother had passed away.
Through it all, Richardson's aunt, Shay Richardson, and her grandmother, "Big Momma," stayed by her side.
Sha'Carri Richardson and Harp opened up earlier this summer in a piece for Vogue, in which Richardson was pictured on one of the magazine's digital covers.
Here's an excerpt from the piece:
As well as a purveyor of comfort food, [Harp] is—by her own account—the person who endowed Richardson with her extraordinary resilience and tenacity. “Sha’Carri’s tough; I made her tough,” says Harp matter-of-factly. “I’m a strong woman, I’ve overcome obstacles in my life. So I knew what I was talking about when, from time to time, things got hard and she’d want to quit—and I’d say, ‘Don’t start nothing and don’t finish it. You start, you finish,’ ” she emphasizes, enunciating each word. “Whatever happens, you keep going, you hear?”
Richardson readily agrees with Harp’s assessment of her influence. “Everything I am, it’s because of that strong, wise Black woman,” she says, referring to Big Momma. “Everything. I mean, I’ve been blessed, because I’ve had other people in my life who have helped me along. But the foundation, that’s her.”
Richardson earned a silver medal in the women's 100-meter race during the first week of the Olympics. She will anchor the women's 4x100 relay on Friday.
Where is Sha'Carri Richardson from?
Richardson is from Dallas and attended Carter High School, where she starred on the track.
Richardson was ranked the No. 1-ranked sprinting recruit in 2018 by FloTrack and MileSplit, and for good reason: She won five University Interscholastic League (UIL) Class 4A state championships, three in the 100-meter dash (2016, 2017, 2018) and two in the 200-meter dash (2017, 2018).
Richardson's 100-meter dash times of 11.12 and 11.28 in 2018 and 2017, respectively, are two fastest times in state championship history. Her 200-meter dash time of 23.02 in 2018 is also tops among state championship times in that event, and her 23.48 time in 2017 was fifth-fastest.
