Richardson to Battle Tokyo Medalists in Prefontaine Classic Women’s 100

Eugene, Oregon – We’ll never know what Sha’Carri Richardson would have done in the Tokyo Olympics, but the Prefontaine Classic has the next best thing.

Meet organizers made true on their intent to find as many medalists as possible, securing all three Olympic medalists in the women’s 100 meters to face the U.S. champion who missed Tokyo.

All 9 lanes will be filled at the re-imagined Hayward Field on the University of Oregon campus. All 9 entrants have sub-11 PRs, with all coming this year and an amazing 5 of them having run sub-10.8s.

Sha’Carri Richardson, 21, ran a wind-aided 10.64 in the semifinals at the Olympic Trials, noticeably easing up before the finish. Only Flo-Jo has run faster among Americans, and Richardson is close to her in the flair department as well. She first turned heads in 2019 with a 10.75 as she bettered world U20 (Junior)records in the 100 and 200 at the NCAA Championships for LSU. She improved to 10.72 this year.

Elaine Thompson-Herah, 29, completed a 100/200 Olympic gold medal double in Tokyo, matching her Rio performances to become the first woman to ever repeat such an accomplishment. She set Jamaican records in both, and her 10.61 in the 100 makes her No. 2 all-time behind Flo-Jo.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, 34, claimed silver in Tokyo after lowering her Jamaican record to 10.63 prior to the Olympics. Fraser-Pryce was the last woman before Thompson to win two Olympic golds in this event (2008 and 2012). No woman or man has as many World Championships golds in the 100 (four).

Shericka Jackson, 27, completed a Jamaican sweep of the medals in Tokyo, but as the year started she seemed unlikely to do so with a PR of just 11.13 and better known in the 400 as a bronze medalist in Rio. She is now No. 5 Jamaican ever at 10.76.

Marie-Josee Ta Lou, 32, was the first non-Jamaican in Tokyo in 4th place, matching her finish from Rio. Co-holder of the African record at 10.78, she is the two-time defending Pre Classic champ.

Mujinga Kambundji, 29, was next of the entrants in the Tokyo final, finishing 6th for her best in any major meet in this event. She lost her Swiss record in Tokyo but has a career total of 25 national titles in all events.

Teahna Daniels, 24, was the top American in the Olympics as well as in the 2019 Doha World Championships, finishing 7th each time. A former NCAA indoor 60 champ for Texas, she lowered her PR to 10.98 in the Tokyo semifinals and ran a wind-aided 10.84 in the Olympic Trials semis.

Javianne Oliver, 26, lowered her PR from 11.10 to 10.96 this year. The Kentucky grad (a former U.S. indoor champ in the 60) was runner-up in the Olympic Trials, where she ran her PR in the heats and a wind-aided 10.83 in the semifinals.

Briana Williams is youngest in the field at 19 and will be making her debut in a Wanda Diamond League meet. The American-born Jamaican was the youngest-ever to win the 100 and 200 in the World U20 Championships in 2018 when she was 16. She missed the Olympics as the 4th-place finisher in Jamaican Championships and earned the leadoff spot on the 4x100 team that won gold in Tokyo. She’s still eligible for U20 records.

Fans can follow the event lineups as all announced fields are posted at PreClassic.com.  The direct link to current start/entry lists is HERE and will include updates to all announced fields.

Tickets for the 46th edition of the Prefontaine Classic, to be held August 20-21 at Hayward Field in Eugene, Ore., are available at GoDucks.com.

Accreditation requests for bona fide members of the media wishing to cover the Prefontaine Classic can be placed online at portal.diamondleague.com. Media accreditation questions and other inquiries can be sent to medianoSpam@preclassic.com.

The Prefontaine Classic is the longest-running outdoor invitational track & field meet in America and is part of the elite Wanda Diamond League of meets held worldwide annually. The Pre Classic’s results score has rated No. 1 or No. 2 in the world 8 of the last 9 years it has been contested. The meet has been sponsored by NIKE continuously since 1984, the longest running title sponsorship of a single sports event in the United States. The NIKE Prefontaine Classic will be shown live to an international audience by NBC on Saturday, and live-streamed on usatf.tv on Friday night.

Steve Prefontaine is a legend in the sport of track & field and is the most inspirational distance runner in American history. He set a national high school 2-mile record (8:41.5) while at Marshfield High School in Coos Bay, Oregon, that is the fastest ever in a National Federation-sanctioned race. While competing for the University of Oregon, he won national cross country championships (3) and outdoor track 3-Mile/5000-meter championships (4), and never lost a collegiate track race at any distance. As a collegiate junior, he made the 1972 U.S. Olympic Team and nearly won an Olympic medal, finishing 4th in the 5K at the 1972 Munich Olympics, at age 21. After finishing college in 1973 and preparing for a return to the Olympics in 1976, he continued to improve, setting many American records. His life ended tragically on May 30, 1975, the result of an auto accident, at age 24. The Pre Classic began that year and had been held every year since, until 2020 when it fell victim to the pandemic.