Sanya Richards-Ross

Sanya Richards-Ross (née Richards; born February 26, 1985 ) is a retired Jamaican-American track and field athlete, who competed internationally for the United States in the 400-meter sprint.

Richards-Ross was born on February 26, 1985, in Kingston, Jamaica to Archie and Sharon Richards.

She began running at the age of seven and represented her school Vaz Prep in annual youth championships.

When Richards-Ross was twelve years old, her family immigrated to Fort Lauderdale, Florida, so that she could attend an American high school, increasing her chances of obtaining an athletic scholarship to an American university.

Richards-Ross was a 2002 graduate of St. Thomas Aquinas High School, where she finished with a cumulative 4.0 GPA and was pegged the 2002 Gatorade National High School Girls Track and Field Athlete of the Year and also the USA Track and Field Youth Athlete of the Year.

At Aquinas, she was a nine-time individual state champion with four 100-meter titles, three 200-meter titles, one 400-meter title and one long jump title.

Richards-Ross attended the University of Texas, Austin from 2002 to 2005, majoring in business and starring on the women's track and field team.

At this distance, Richards-Ross is also a six-time U.S. national champion (2003, 2005, 2006, 2008, 2009, and 2012).

Representing the University of Texas in 2003, Richards-Ross became the first freshman to win the NCAA national championship in the 400 meters and the 4 × 400 meters relay.

Her victory in 400 meters set the then American U20 record of 50.58 seconds.

Later that June, at eighteen years old, the freshman Longhorn claimed her first senior national title by winning the 400 meters in 51.01 seconds at the 2003 U.S. national championships and qualified for the 2003 Paris World Championships.

In Paris, she finished fourth in her 400 meters semi-final and did not move on to the final.

However, Richards-Ross still came home with a gold medal in the 4 × 400 meters relay after anchoring Team USA to a victory.

In addition to her individual achievements, she won three consecutive Olympic gold medals in the 4 × 400 meters relay at the 2004, 2008, and 2012 Summer Olympics, as well as five total relay medals from multiple World Athletics Championships.

Richards-Ross qualified for her first Olympic team by running 49.89 seconds to place second in the 400 meters at the 2004 U.S. Olympic trials.

In the 2004 Olympic 400 meters final, Richards-Ross finished sixth with a time of 50.19 seconds, behind her two American compatriots DeeDee Trotter and Monique Hennagan, who both missed the podium as well.

The American women sought redemption from their disappointing run by winning gold in the 4 × 400 meters relay, days later.

After leaving Athens, Richards-Ross forwent her college eligibility at Texas, competing as a Nike-sponsored athlete and training under the then head track and field coach of Baylor University, Clyde Hart.

A formidable competitor throughout her career, Richards-Ross ranked number one in the world from 2005 to 2009 and again in 2012 in the 400 meters.

At the 2005 Helsinki World Championships, 20-year-old Richards-Ross failed to maintain the lead coming off the second curve in the 400 meters final and was passed by the 2004 Olympic champion Tonique Williams-Darling of the Bahamas, who won with a season's best of 49.55 seconds.

Richards-Ross attributed the difficult loss to her inexperience as a young professional athlete, fixating on beating her main competitor before the final 100 meters instead of trusting her established race strategy.

Reverting to her predetermined race plan, she dipped under 49 seconds for the first time with a personal best of 48.92 seconds, the fastest time in the world that year, in Zürich, a race that also featured the newly crowned world champion Williams-Darling.

She set the American 400-meter record of 48.70 seconds in 2006 and was named the IAAF 2006 Female World Athlete of the Year, an honor she received again in 2009.

Richards-Ross also holds the record for the most sub-50 second sprints in the history of the event, with a career total of 49 times.

Pursuit of the American 400 meters record, set at 48.83 seconds by Valerie Brisco-Hooks, became Richards-Ross' goal of the 2006 season.

Leading into the World Cup race in Athens, the American woman was on a dominant win-streak and held the world-leading time of 49.05 seconds.

She finished the World Cup race in 48.70 seconds, replacing Brisco-Hooks as the new American record holder in the 400 meters.

At the time, this personal best ranked her as the seventh-fastest woman ever at the distance.

Richards-Ross and her training partner Jeremy Wariner were awarded the 2006 Jesse Owens Award by USA Track and Field after both were undefeated for the entire season and each won their $250,000 portion of the IAAF Golden League.

Athletes who win all six Golden League meets in an event claim a share of the $1 million jackpot.

For the 2007 season, Richards-Ross decided to expand her résumé, racing more 200-meter sprints and testing her ability to possibly pursue the rare 200–400 meters double Olympic victory in Beijing the following year.

Only a handful of athletes have ever achieved such a feat, including Michael Johnson, her coach Clyde Hart's world-record-setting pupil.

Things strayed from her plan, as she finished fourth in the 400 meters event at the 2007 U.S. national championships, only qualifying for the 2007 Osaka World Championships by placing second in the 200 meters, behind reigning 200 meters world champion Allyson Felix.

In Osaka, Richards-Ross ran 22.70 seconds to finish fifth, as teammate Felix successfully defended her title from two years ago.

Both American women reunited for the women's 4 × 400 meters relay, helping Team USA win gold, ahead of the Jamaican team and the British team, which featured the new 400 meters world champion Christine Ohuruogu and 400 meters silver medalist Nicola Sanders.

Her notable accolades in this event include being the 2012 Olympic champion, 2009 world champion, 2008 Olympic bronze medalist, and 2005 world silver medalist.

With her victory in 2012, she became the second American woman to win the 400 meters at the Olympic Games and the first American woman to earn multiple global 400-meter titles.

Following an injury at the 2016 U.S. Olympic trials, Richards-Ross retired from the sport and subsequently joined the NBC broadcasting team as a track and field analyst.

She published her memoir Chasing Grace: What the Quarter Mile has Taught Me about God and Life in 2017.

In October 2021, Bravo announced that Richards-Ross was joining the fourteenth season of The Real Housewives of Atlanta.