Sharon Firisua from the Solomon Islands looked and acted like a sprinter as she prepared her starting blocks. But when the race began, she ran like a marathoner trying to sprint.
The distance runner, who got her country’s only spot in the women’s 100 meters at the Paris Olympics, finished last among the finishers on Friday. Her time of 14.31 seconds was a personal best.
After the race, Firisua quickly moved through the media mixed zone without speaking to reporters.
This was her third time at the Olympics and her first as a sprinter. She had previously run the 5,000 meters at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and the marathon at the Tokyo Games in 2021.
When Firisua didn’t qualify for Paris, her country’s Olympic officials decided to give her the wild-card spot they had received. These spots are usually given to small countries to allow their athletes to compete in major events, even if they don’t meet the qualifying standards.
The officials were informed that the 100 meters was the only event with available space. Although Firisua didn’t have a time for the 100 meters, she did have times for distances ranging from 1,500 meters to the marathon.
In 2021, Firisua was named the tourism ambassador for the chain of islands in the western South Pacific, according to her Olympic bio.
Firisua’s time in the 100 meters was 3.37 seconds slower than the time posted by reigning world champion Sha’Carri Richardson in a first-round heat later that morning.
The decision to pick Firisua was controversial. The country’s top sprinter, Jovita Arunia, did not qualify for the event and was not given this spot.
“We’re the (actual) sprinters … I don’t know what went wrong, it’s unbelievable,” Arunia told Australia’s ABC News.
Arunia also mentioned she is thinking about quitting the sport.
“I will not compete anymore because of what they did,” she said.
