For Richardson and his family, the focus was his education: having represented his school at a national level on their debate team, he saw the discipline more as a way of pursuing further academic study via a college scholarship.

[3] In his first international outing at the 2003 World Youth Championships in Athletics, he completed a novel 110 m and 400 m hurdles double, taking both gold medals in personal record times.

He began to focus more on short-sprint hurdling and ran for the South Carolina Gamecocks, taking NCAA bronze medals indoors and outdoors in his first year at the college.

He ran on the IAAF Diamond League circuit in Europe the next year, but came last in the 110 m hurdles final at the 2010 USA Outdoor Track and Field Championships.

[7] He twice ran a personal record time of 13.15 seconds at the 2011 USA Championships and was rewarded with third place behind David Oliver and Aries Merritt, gaining his first senior international selection in the process.

[10] On August 29, 2011, Richardson ran 13.16 to win the 110 meter hurdles World Championship in Daegu, South Korea, after Robles (the initial winner) was disqualified for impeding Liu Xiang.