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Usain Bolt Offers Words of Encouragement to Sha'Carri Richardson After Cannabis Ban

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Nyakundi Report

Newsroom 1 min read

This archive report was first published on 14 July 2021.

On August 16, 2008, Usain Bolt won the men's 100m final at the National stadium as part of the 2008 Beijing Olympic Games.

Eight-time Olympic gold medallist Usain Bolt has offered words of encouragement to American sprinter Sha'Carri Richardson, who is serving a one-month ban for a positive cannabis test.

“Hopefully she can learn from this and just push on,” Bolt told Reuters when asked about the American’s failed test for the banned substance, which cost her a spot on the U.S. team for the Olympics in Tokyo.

Richardson was aiming to become the first American woman to win the Olympic 100m title since Gail Devers in 1996 after posting 10.72 seconds in April - one of her five runs under 11 seconds this season.

However, Bolt emphasized that athletes must compete within the rules, stating, “I’ve always explained to people that the rules are the rules. I’ve been saying this throughout my years, when it comes to drugs, I have nothing to say, but the rules are the rules. If they say you should do this and this is the rule, that is the rule,”

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