Will a Mormon athlete named Rebecca Washington replace U.S. runner Sha'Carri Richardson on the U.S. Olympic team? No, that's not true: This claim comes from a post made by a parody Twitter account; the runner replacing Richardson is not named Rebecca Washington.
The claim appeared in the screenshot of a tweet on an Instagram post (archived here) on July 5, 2021. The caption opens:
america really set themselves up for that one we not winning!! we not winning.
This is what the Instagram post looked like on July 7, 2021:
Lead Stories has previously written about the suspension of Sha'Carri Richardson from the U.S. Olympic team due to the discovery of marijuana-related substances in her system, as well as her acceptance of the suspension. Those stories are here and here.
The runner who has been chosen to replace Richardson on the U.S. Olympic team is Jenna Prandini, who came in in fourth place during the 100-meter trial.
"Rebecca Washington" is not recorded as a runner in the U.S. Olympic trials. The photo on the right side of Richardson in the screenshot of the tweet is a digitally manipulated photo of Prandini.
This post originated from the account @VictoryNewsNet, which is self-described as a news parody account. Victory News Network sent out this statement in the form of a tweet following the circulation of the post:
