Malinda Words: Sha’Carri Richardson versus and with Sha’Carri Richardson

['The Morning Inspection' is the title of a column I wrote for the Daily News from 2009 to 2011, one article a day, Monday through Saturday. This is the 205th article in the new series that began in December 2022. Links to previous articles are given below]

On Monday the 21st of August, 2023, Sha’Carri Richardson won the 100m gold at the 2023 World Championship in Budapest. Her 10.65 second run is a new championship record.

It equalled the mark for the 5th fastest 100m dash in the world which she now shares with Shericka Jackson of Jamaica (set in July 2023) and Marion Jones of the USA (set in 1998). Incidentally She’Carri pushed Shericka Jackson to second place in this race.

Notably, Shericka (2nd), Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica (3rd) and Marie-Josée Ta Lou of Cote d’Ivoire (4th), are ranked fifth, third and eighth all-time respectively.

She has quite a backstory, but that’s not what caught my attention. After the race, Sha’Carri said, ‘It was just me that was standing in my way. Now I’m with myself.’

A strange observation on the face of it; after all there’s only the finishing line in front of a sprinter. It’s a 100m race and unlike in a 200m event where all competitors except the one on the outermost lane cannot stop those on the right entering the circle of their peripheral vision.

Sha’Carri could have been referring to off-track issues that clearly caused her much mental stress, but she certainly has made a statement about an aspect of competition that is not always taught, thought about and practiced.

On the one hand it’s about trying to be the best one can be. It is also about abstracting oneself from what’s happening elsewhere. In a sense it’s like the advice given to athletes to desist from the temptation to check how the others are doing; not to look over the shoulder and not to even glance sideways. Such things distract and can add those fractions of seconds that cost an athlete a medal.

But how does one understand ‘me standing in my way’? That obstacle-self could be many things. Self doubt for example. Overconfidence. Aspects of self that are not relevant to the matter at hand — total focus on the race. Personal problems. Professional jealousies. Past victories. Past defeats. Statistics. Desire] rds. Indeed, even the need to win.

Sha’Carri’s words reminded me once again of the advice given by renowned international chess coach from Greece, Efstratios Grivas, who before each round of the Chess Olympiad in Tromso, Norway (2014) would simply tell the members of Sri Lanka’s chess team he was coaching, ‘play good chess.’ He never said ‘you better win this game’ or ‘you must hold your opponent to a draw’ or ‘don’t you dare tell me that you’ve lost.’ Such directives, we know, are often given by coaches. The intention is to motivate, but typically a player would do well in spirt of such strong and often petrifying tasks that coaches set rather than because of them.

There’s always those many versions of oneself that stand in the way. Overcome them and they all collapse into one entity with a singular objective: true competition with oneself; doing the best one can and refusing to let anything distract. And that I feel is what Sha’Carri meant when she said ‘Now I’m with myself.’

Ricky Ponting, when asked what the secret of his success was, said, ‘I treat every ball with respect.’ It’s the same thing. What came before and what could come later are thoughts that stand in the way. Ponting pushed aside those versions of himself that could blur his vision and resolve, and therefore compromise his skills.

One could argue that this philosophy can only apply to individual sports and in athletics, only to disciplines such as long jump, high jump, triple jump, javelin, discus and shot put. One could argue that in other track events such as 200m and races over longer distances, athletes are required to take cognizance of other competitors and the strategies they have adopted. This is true. Even in individual sports like tennis, badminton, table tennis and chess, there’s always engagement with an opponent. And yet, in both types one can find oneself standing in the way. There can be things that stop one from being with oneself.

And it’s not just during the competition or the race. Inhibiting factors are present in the ‘before’ and in the ‘after.’ Sha’Carri has handled these matters effectively it seems. She has also shared some wisdom that could be useful to everyone.

26 August 2023

Sha’Carri Richardson versus and with Sha’Carri Richardson

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