The Sha’Carri Richardson discourse shows most fans don’t care about athletes as people

As I came to know in my own NBA career, the reality is most people don’t care what athletes are going through personally. Just do your job, entertain me and keep your issues to yourself

When it comes to athletes, nobody cares about your pain.

That much is apparent after listening to all of the discussions on sports radio and television and reading comments across social media in the week since Sha’Carri Richardson was dropped from the US Olympic team after testing positive for marijuana.

On Tuesday, Richardson’s last hope of competing at the Tokyo Games in the 4x100m relay, which is scheduled after her one-month suspension will be completed, was dashed when she was left off USA Track and Field’s 130-person roster for this month’s Summer Olympics.

One talking point that has been repeated time and again is that Richardson has accepted her punishment and everyone should just move on. But what was she supposed to do? Not accept the sanctions? Fight against the US Anti-Doping Agency, USATF or the US Olympic & Paralympic Committee?

All she could do after seeing her sensational results from the US Olympic trials disqualified was say she was sorry.

“I apologize,” Richardson said on NBC’s Today show. “As much as I’m disappointed, I know that when I step on the track I represent not only myself, I represent a community that has shown great support, great love. … I apologize for the fact that I didn’t know how to control my emotions or deal with my emotions during that time.”

We all have our different struggles, we all have our different things we deal with, but to put on a face and have to go out in front of the world and put on a face and hide my pain,” Richardson said. “Who are you? Who am I to tell you how to cope when you’re dealing with a pain or you’re dealing with a struggle that you’ve never experienced before or that you never thought you’d have to deal with. Who am I to tell you how to cope? Who am I to tell you you’re wrong for hurting?”

Richardson’s essential admission that she had self-medicated to cope with the death of her birth mother in the days before the US trials was met with a surprising callousness and lack of compassion from the talking heads across sports and general news media, many of whom have returned to the same points again and again: