We are only a few short weeks into the outdoor track and field season, and we’ve seen some tremendous marks. A few weeks back, LSU’s Terrance Laird took the world by storm with an opening 200m time of 19.81 seconds.

That time landed him a podium position on the NCAA all-time list. We all looked on with pure shock when the time came up and Laird cemented himself as the third-fastest collegian in US history — trailing the likes of Olympic and World medalist Walter Dix (19.69), and the ever-impressive up-and-comer, Divine Oduduru (19.73).

We eagerly await to see what Matthew Boling can produce in his opener. While he has yet to run an outdoor 200m, Boling edged out Laird at the NCAA Championships running a 20.19 on the short oval, with a world-leading time and fifth fastest NCAA 200m ever. Laird clearly wanted to make a statement early having lost by only 0.01 seconds, and he did that and more. We can only imagine it excited his rival as much as it did the rest of us.

But it pales in comparison to Sha’Carri Richardson’s proclamation this last week. The recent birthday girl took her minted 21-year-old legs and said to the rest of the world on Saturday, “Who’s playing for second?“

Richardson blasted out of the blocks to an eye-popping 10.72 seconds, becoming the sixth-fastest woman to have run the event. Much like the men’s all-time list, the women’s list is heavily dominated by the US and Jamaica. She now follows Florence Griffith Joyner, Carmelita Jeter, Marion Jones, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Elaine Thompson-Herah as the fastest women in history.

After crossing the finish line, she exclaimed "I am who I say I am!"

"I just feel like it's time to bring the respect that track and field deserves and I want people to know that I am going to use my platform and my talent and who I am to distribute that for track and field for the world” she stated in a post-race interview.

That’s certainly something I think most track athletes and fans empathize heavily with.

Now, having watched the race, heard the comments, and noticed all the other results from this race, I can’t help but wonder what the f*&! is going on.

I don’t want to take away from Sha’Carri’s amazing display and raw time, but if you look at the results of everyone else who ran in that race, you’ll see that the times were all insane for April. In fact, nearly every single other woman who has run in the top 10 all-time for the women’s 100m dash has run that time in an Olympic or World Championship final…IN THE SUMMER! The slowest time in this heat was 11.35, everyone else ran sub-11.2 seconds.

This race could have easily been an Olympic or World Championships heat.

Looking at the race execution itself for Richardson, you will notice a relatively average start at best, a non-existent drive phase, and a mediocre knee drive at top speed. While she had the high turnover one might expect from a time like this, to see someone run that fast, this early, with those mechanics makes you wonder. I’ve watched many of Sha’Carri Richardson’s races and this was very much an early-season “rust buster“, and thus far from polished.

So were there shifting winds or is this year special with all the pandemic-induced focus? Who knows. Let’s just see if she can run a time like that again in the coming weeks! What do you guys think? Are we looking at a 10.6 or better run in Tokyo this year?