TOKYO (AP) — Sha’Carri Richardson needed time, and she got it.

Slowed since the start of the year by an injury, the nature of which she has not disclosed, track’s most charismatic, enigmatic sprinter will try to defend her 100-meter title this week at a world championships that have been pushed to the tail-end of the sport’s season.

She heads to Tokyo – the trip she missed four years ago for the Olympics after a positive test for marijuana terminated her season – not as a favorite, but rather, as a sprinter who hasn't broken 11 seconds this year and now stands out as the sport’s biggest question mark.

Is she the sprinter who looked poised to dominate for years when she won at the U.S. Olympic trials in 2021?

Is she the sprinter who looked poised for a golden run at the Paris Olympics

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