American Sha'Carri Richardson has seen her odds for the women's 100m gold medal balloon substantially after her main competitor, Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, dropped out to focus on the 200m.
Richardson already had exorbitant -170 odds at DraftKings before the news of Jackson's withdrawl. Now, those odds are priced at -340, an increase of over 14%. Her implied odds indicate her chances of winning this event are now over 77%.
Jackson had been an underdog of roughly +350 to win the 100m but was the best athlete other than Richardson on the leaderboard.
Women's 100m to Win Gold
| Swimmer | Odds |
|---|---|
| Sha'Carri Richardson (United States) | -340 |
| Julien Alfred (Saint Lucia) | +400 |
| Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica) | +1200 |
| Melissa Jefferson (United States) | +1300 |
| Shashalee Forbes (Jamaica) | +2000 |
| Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith (Ivory Coast) | +2500 |
| Tia Clayton (Jamaica) | +3000 |
| Dina Asher-Smith (Great Britain) | +3000 |
| Twanisha Terry (United States) | +4000 |
Odds are for athletes under +10000 odds according to DraftKings as of Wednesday afternoon.
Richardson famously was forced to miss the 2020 Summer Olympics after testing positive for marijuana, a ruling that was immensely controversial.
She had been among the favorites to win that competition before being abruptly suspended just a month before the competition.
Since then, Richardson put up the fourth-fastest time ever recorded in the women's 100m and won the most recent world championships in the same event in 2023.
Jackson will now turn her attention to the 200m, where she has the fastest time in history other than the late Florence Griffith-Joyner. In that odds market, she's still the underdog at +180 at DraftKings on account of American Gabby Thomas, who has put up better numbers than Jackson so far this year in the 200m.
Still, Jackson has won the last two world championships in the 200m. She has also never lost a head-to-head matchup against Thomas.
Jackson dropped out of the 100m due to an injury she suffered in a race earlier this month. That factor is baked into her odds despite her elite history.
Preliminary heats for the 100m begin on Friday morning. The 200m preliminary rounds begin on Sunday morning.
