In Netflix’s Sprint , world champion US athlete Sha’Carri Richardson shares the mantra behind her signature style. “I go by the saying, look good, feel good, do good. Who says you can’t be sexy on the track?” she says in the second episode of the series.
Richardson is one of the fastest women in the world, but when she’s racing, it’s not just her speed people pay attention to. It’s also her hair, nails, make-up – and that’s just how she likes it. Sha’Carri Richardson on the podium at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
Credit: Getty Images While Sprint shines a light on the rituals of 100- and 200-metre athletes that often include designer accessories and hairstyles, which take hours to bring to life, track and field is far from the only sport where looking good feels closely tied to performance. Dr Kirsten Peterson has been a team sports psychologist at seven Olympic Games, working with athletes from Australia and the US. She agrees that physical expression – whether in the form of clothing, hairstyles or make-up – carries a lot of value.
To those of us who aren’t professional athletes, it can seem a little confusing that someone would spend so much time considering the way they look when they could be training. However, Peterson says that if an athlete is going to the effort of doing anything, there must be some kind of intentionality behind it. In other words, athletes competing at the Olympic level aren’t wasting time with anything they d.
