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24-year-old Armand Duplantis backed his LSU alumni Sha’Carri Richardson by predicting her grand win in 2024. The two-time world champion pole vaulter shared his belief in Richardson winning the gold medal at the Paris Olympics.
2020 Tokyo Olympics gold medalist Armand Duplantis had a stunning year in 2023. The Swedish-American athlete managed to win his second world championship gold medal in pole vault in Budapest in August. Nevertheless, he also won the Diamond League title this year.
After having a great 2023 season, Duplantis recently featured in an interesting Q&A session hosted by World Athletics. Star athletes like Noah Lyles, Kelvin Kiptum, and Faith Kipyegon also joined the young pole vaulter.
During the Q&A session, the athletes were asked to predict for 2024. Duplantis proudly answered the question, stating,
“JuVaughn Harrison is gonna win the gold and Sha’Carri Richardson also. That’s my two bold predictions, my two LSU people and I believe in that too.”
Both Duplantis and Richardson have been student-athletes at Lousiana State University. Perhaps, the pole vaulter was Richardson’s senior considering their one-year age gap.
Sha’Carri Richardson also backed Armand Duplantis at the right time. Recently, the champion pole vaulter won World Athletics' 2023 World Athlete of the Year. He received the award for the third time in a row after 2020 and 2022. Undoubtedly, Duplantis received immense appreciation from his well-wishers.
Fellow LSU alumni Sha’Carri Richardson also expressed her pride in him. She shared Duplantis’s picture on her Instagram story and captioned it,
"3x the legend 🔥🔥, congratulations"
A look at Sha’Carri Richardson’s comeback story
The 2023 season turned out to be the comeback year for Sha’Carri Richardson. Previously, the 23-year-old athlete had a string of poor performances in 2021 and 2022.
The athlete tested positive for consuming marijuana before making her Olympic debut in Tokyo. As a result, she was debarred from competing in the finals of the Olympics.
Later on, she tried to make her comeback at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic. However, she settled for ninth place in the championship. Richardson also missed out on making her world championship debut at the 2022 World Athletics Championships as she missed the 100m and 200m finals at the national championship.
However, after a year’s gap, Richardson made her true comeback. She made her debut at the world championship in Budapest where she won two gold medals in the 100m and 4x100m relay races. She also bagged a bronze medal in the 200m race.
After her stunning run in the 2023 season, Richardson is also expected to make her Olympic debut in Paris 2024.
