Sha’Carri Richardson Comeback: Jamaican 100m star bags gold at US Championships after battling harassment allegations from ex-partner

Sha'Carri Richardson won the women's 100m gold at the U.S. Championships in 10.82 seconds on Friday night, making a victorious comeback to the track. The triumph marked her first national championship after she suffered abuse from her ex-partner Janeek Brown a year ago.

Sha'Carri's ex-girlfriend, Janeek Brown. Janeek Brown

Richardson claimed that Brown mistreated her, stole from her, and assaulted her during their time together.

In May, the Jamaican athlete, who is 22 years old, broke her silence via social media after concerns surfaced about her decision to skip a May 7 track competition in Kenya.

The American sprint star wrote on Instagram: "I was in a relationship with a Jamaican athlete that never cared about me from the jump. I was abused and stole from, yet protected her from the judgement of her country and family while they dragged me. I had to deal with homophobia and so much more that I’m still healing from."

Richardson followed up her narrative:

"I don’t understand how someone can just walk out of your life and not care about you anymore."

"A person who doesn’t defend you while someone slanders you is your enemy too."

"We live in a time where people get mad when you don’t let them use you."

Within the athletics community, Richardson's relationship with Brown was not a secret. Following her qualification at the US Olympic trials the previous year, she even discussed her relationship with Brown:

"She just wanted me to be able to make a statement: Let’s continue to show the world I’m a force to be reckoned with."

Richardson tested positive for marijuana and withdrew from a number of competitions she entered, including the Kip Keino Classic in Nairobi, Kenya. She later admitted that, in order to deal with the loss of her mother, she was using marijuana as a form of self-medication.

Janeek Brown admits to abusing Sha'Carri Richardson

Sha'Carri Richardson's ex Janeek Brown in a recent sprint race

On 27 May 2022, Janeek Brown admitted during a live Instagram session that she once abused Sha'Carri Richardson. But she was, however, convinced that the latter purely wanted to exploit the situation for clout.

Richardson came out to her 2.1 million Instagram followers earlier in the month of May 2022, telling them that she had been the victim of an abusive relationship. However, until recently, followers were unaware of the identity of the person who abused her.

Following Sha'Carri Richardson's disclosure, Janeek Brown made her own public statement in which she backed up Richardson's allegations of abuse and claimed that the relationship was extremely "toxic." According to The Neighbourhood Talk, Brown made a comment about the relationship that had lasted for two years:

"I was abusive once that there’s physical evidence of, and we moved on, and even after then I was trying to move on from that. We still got nowhere."

Brown claimed that the escalation of their relationship was a direct result of her own personal issues.

"We just keep on fighting, blaming each other, and the regular relationship problems," Brown continued. "Yeah, I was going through something I was finding myself; that’s why I am coming to social media. … So yeah, it’s a transformation; I’m going to find myself now. I may look different now."

In fact, Janeek Brown urged Sha'Carri Richardson to seek charges against her. She openly questioned why the latter opted to talk about the incident in public instead of keeping it private -- tying back to her claims of seeking clout.