Track and field’s “Polly Rocket,” Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has returned after a ten-month break. The 37-year-old five-time world champion is competing in her fifth and last Olympics, wanting to spend more time with her kids and her family.
Her most recent medal win was a bronze in the 100 metres at the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, where Sha’Carri Richardson won the race. Although much awaited, her season debut at the JAAA French Foray #3 on June 15, 2024, fell short of expectations.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce threw herself into the race.
Determined and with a taped-up leg, Fraser-Pryce entered Kingston’s Stadium East following a tardy start to the 2024 campaign. This was not your typical race; it was her victorious comeback following a 295-day layoff due to injuries. Track & Field Gazette took to Twitter to celebrate Fraser-Pryce’s incredible comeback after the race, as she emerged victorious.
“The Queen Is Returning!With a time of 11.15 (0.8) for her first race of 2024, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce 🇯🇲 makes a fantastic comeback, winning the women’s 100m at the French Foray 3! Three weeks and one month before the Olympics begin, she begins her season!” quoted by essentially sports.
Fraser-Pryce gave a dominant performance that demonstrated her excellent form. She easily defeated her rivals in 11.16 seconds, which was the quickest time throughout the seven heats.
Jodean Williams and Sabrina Dockery came in second and third, respectively, at 11.20 and 11.46 seconds.
Supporters dispute whether she is ready for the Olympics.
Although Fraser-Pryce’s performance was impressive, supporters are left wondering if she is ready for Paris, hoping for a time closer to her personal best of 10.60 seconds.
This won’t guarantee her a place on the team, a supporter said. She needs to work harder. Fraser-Pryce needs to finish among the top three at the Jamaican trials to qualify for the Olympics.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce withdraws from one of her final pre-retirement races to prepare for Paris Olympics
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, popularly known as “Mommy Rocket,” was expected to participate in the Spitzen Leichtathletik Luzern in one of her final appearances before retiring.
However, she prioritized prudence ahead of her final Olympic Games and withdrew from the competition during warm-ups due to discomfort. Her decision to diligently prepare for the Paris Olympics aborted her plan to participate in Luzern. Luzern was to be the scene of her first appearance in Europe since the World Athletics Championships in Budapest last year. But now fans will have to wait to see the Jamaican legend in Paris.
Meanwhile, Mujinga Kambundji enthralled her local fans at the Luzern Athletic Meet with a fast 11.20 seconds (-0.8) finish, defeating Jamaican sprinter Kemba Nelson. Kambundji did a great job, but her timing did not live up to Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s incredible season standards.
Fraser-Pryce, 37, has steadily improved; in just 13 days, she achieved an amazing time of 10.91 seconds, which was lower than her previous season’s best of 11.15 seconds. Fans are already counting down the seconds until her next event, which could be the Olympics in Paris, to see if she can run even faster.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce lengthens the wait as concerns about her fitness grow
Though the reasons for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s last-minute cancellation from recent competitions are still unknown, the sporting community is abuzz. There are growing concerns as Jamaica’s potent sprint trio exhibits injury symptoms.
Shericka Jackson pulled up just short of the finish line at the Gyulai Istvan Memorial in Hungary with a hamstring problem, and Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah withdrew from the Jamaican trials because of an Achilles injury. These mishaps highlight the brittleness and unpredictability of professional sports and make one wonder if the Jamaican trio are prepared for the next contests.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce stated; “As I go through the rest of the season, I’m just praying that I stay healthy and continue to work, because it’s never over until it’s over,”
Sha’Carri Richardson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce blow through the heats on way to epic encounter
The heats are on to find out the world’s fastest woman. And the preliminary findings show the current favourite American Sha’Carrie Richardson has not blown off the competition yet. Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, the 100-metre silver medal winner in Tokyo three years ago, is still in the race.
The 100-metre in Tokyo ended in an all-Jamaican podium finish with Elaine Thompson-Herah winning gold and Shericka Jackson clinching bronze. However, Thompson-Herah is not competing in Paris because of an Achilles tendon injury while Jackson pulled out of the 100-metre to focus on the 200-metre, her pet event, after being injured in a race in Hungary in July.
Queen in a da deck!!!!! The incomparable Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲🇯🇲 pic.twitter.com/pUpp0HdLk3
Fraser-Pryce is considered one of the greatest sprinters of all time. She boasts five world titles and won the 100-metre Olympic gold medal in Beijing in 2008 and London in 2012.
However, now 37 years old, can she hold off a young gun like Richardson?
The veteran, dubbed “Mommy Rocket”, isn’t done as yet.
This is her Olympic swan song, she says, and she aims to give of her best.
“It’s the final Olympic Games; let me repeat that,” Fraser-Pryce told journalists in Paris. “ I’m really looking forward to the experience, stepping on the track and always, once I get on the line, I’m giving 100 percent at all times and that’s what I’m looking forward to.”
— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 2, 2024
Sha’Carri Richardson
Richardson, 24, is the reigning world champion and the fastest woman this year, having posted a 10.71 in June.
She is taking part in her first Olympics, and looking forward to the competition.
“To be at the Olympics is a phenomenal feeling,” Richardson said. “I’m super excited and eager to compete on the Olympic stage.”
She couldn’t take part in Tokyo as she was suspended after testing positive for marijuana. Raised by her grandmother and an aunt, she said she took the drug to cope with the news that her biological mother had died.
Richardson and Fraser-Pryce both qualified for the semi-finals.
Richardson ran 10.94 to win the first heat on Friday (August 2).
However, Fraser-Pryce set a better time, clocking 10.92 to finish second behind Marie Josee Ta Lou-Smith of Ivory Coast in the eighth and final heat.
Marie-Josee Ta Lou-Smith of Ivory Coast had the fastest time on Friday with 10.87, as she held off Fraser-Pryce down the home stretch in a thrilling final heat. She is hungry for a spot on the podium after fourth-place finishes in the last two Games.
Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred, Canada’s Audrey Leduc, Poland’s Ewa Swoboda, the United States’ Twanisha Terry, Britain’s Daryll Neita and Dina Asher-Smith, Jamaica’s Tia Clayton and Shashalee Forbes and Gambia’s Gina Mariam Bass Bittaye are among the others who advanced to the semi-finals.
Sha’Carri Richardson vs Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: Sprinting legend vs young hotshot
The Paris Olympics will settle in 10 seconds who is the fastest woman in the world. Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has bagged medals at every Olympic Games since Beijing 2008. Now, at 37, having just recovered from an injury last year, the sprinting legend is up against a young hotshot. American Sha’Carri Richardson, 24, will be making her Olympic debut after breaking the Jamaican’s record.
Richardson’s Olympic campaign has already got off to a good start. She finished first in her heats in the opening round of the US Olympic track and field trials on Friday (June 21) with a time of 10.88 seconds.
Fraser-Pryce will be seen at the Jamaican Olympic trials, beginning on June 27. Down with a hamstring injury suffered in the 4x100m at the Budapest World Championships in August 2023, she ran her first race this year only on June 15. She won the 100m race in Kingston, Jamaica, in 11.15 seconds.
That’s slow compared with Richardson’s Olympic trials time, but slow starts are not unusual for Fraser-Pryce, points out Total Running Productions. She opened her 2019 season with an even slower time of 11.20 seconds but ran under 10.90 seconds seven times that year.
So, she can pick up the pace when needed.
How they stack up against each other
See how Richardson and Fraser-Pryce measure against each other in a YouTube video posted by Total Running Productions.
They first faced each other in the 100m at the Prefontaine Classic in Palo Alto, California on June 30, 2019.
Richardson was faster than Fraser-Pryce. The American came fourth, the Jamaican seventh. Fraser wasn’t even “close to sprinting”, she was “practically jogging”, said the commentator in the YouTube video. The Jamaican could be much faster, as she proved when she won the 100m in 10.71 seconds in the World Championships finals in Doha, Qatar, later that year, on September 29, 2019.
Richardson, nevertheless, has a slight edge in showdowns against Fraser-Pryce. They have competed in seven races – and Richardson has won four, Fraser-Pryce three.
Richardson’s recent success
But Fraser-Pryce clocked faster times than Richardson in the 100m every year from 2016 till 2022 – and then the tide turned.
Richardson struck gold at the 2023 World Championships, winning the 100m in 10.65 seconds, setting a new record, beating Fraser-Pryce, and shaving .05 seconds off the record set by the Jamaican only the previous year.
The Paris Olympics could be the crowning moment for Richardson, says Total Running Productions.
The Jamaicans used to dominate the 100m, but the only Jamaican now in the top 10 is Bryanna Lyston at Louisiana State University who unexpectedly completed her season and dropped out of the Olympics.
Besides Richardson, there are other highly regarded young Americans such as Aleia Hobbs, McKenzie Long and Jacious Sears, currently the world’s fastest woman with the season’s best time of 10.77 seconds.
The favourite
Richardson seems to be the favourite, though. “After a tumultuous 2021 season and a rather disappointing 2022 season she has turned everything around, she has reached the top of the world, she broke the championship record of one of her Jamaican rivals and now she is just the favourite for this Olympic Games,” says the commentator in the YouTube video
Fraser-Pryce has said she will retire after the Paris Olympics. “My son needs me,” she said about her child, born in 2017.
She has already won medals at every Olympics since 2008. Her Olympic haul includes gold medals in the 100 m in Beijing (2008) and London (2012) as well as in the 4x100m in Tokyo (2021); silver medals in the 200 m in London and the 4x100m in London and Rio (2016); and a bronze in the 100m in Rio. Whoever wins in Paris, she will be remembered as one of the greatest sprinters ever.
Source: Total Running Productions
Shericka Jackson pulls out of 100m to ‘protect my body’, she will focus on 200m in Paris Olympics
Jamaican track star Shericka Jackson won’t be chasing a sprint double at the Paris Olympics. She dropped out of the 100 metres on Wednesday, saying, “The decision is just to protect my body.”
She will focus instead on the 200 metres in which she is the current world champion, having won the event in Eugene, USA, in 2022 and Budapest, Hungary, in 2023.
Jackson explained she dropped out of the 100 metres because of an injury she suffered at a race earlier this month.
‘I got hurt’ in Hungary race, she says
In Jackson’s final pre-Olympics race in Hungary, she pulled up with a calf cramp and limped off the track.
“I got hurt, and me and my coach felt like it was a good decision to only run one event,” she told reporters.
Earlier this week, Jackson’s coach, Stephen Francis, told the Jamaica Gleaner website that Jackson “appears OK to me”.
Jackson, however, described the decision to pull out as coming from both herself and Francis.
Shericka Jackson, ranked number two in the world for 100 metres, has pulled out of the 100m less than two days before the heats start.
Jackson said she would still run the 200 metres, where she is the only woman other than the world-record holder, the late Florence Griffith Joyner, to finish in under 21.5 seconds.
In Jackson’s absence, American world champion Sha’Carri Richardson, who holds the world-leading time of 10.71 seconds this year, will start as the favourite for the 100-metre gold medal.
Elaine Thompson-Herah, who won the sprint double at the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Games and again in Tokyo, will not defend her titles. She dropped out of the Jamaican trials last month with an Achilles injury.
Jackson had been considered a top contender in the 100 metres after winning bronze in the event at the Tokyo Games and finishing second at each of the past two world championships.
Olympic debutant Tia Clayton and two-time Olympic 100-metre champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will carry Jamaica’s best medal hopes in the event.
Pryce-Jones, 37, won gold in the 100 metres in Beijing (2008) and London (2012).
Richardson favourite in 100m
However, Richardson is the current favourite. She won the event in her first world championships last summer.
The Jamaicans won all three medals in the 100 metres in Tokyo with Thompson -Herah winning gold, Pryce-Jones silver, and Jackson bronze. Only Pryce-Jones will be competing in the event in Paris.
Jamaica track and field team manager Ludlow Watts said Shashalee Forbes would replace Jackson in the 100 metres. Forbes was fourth in the 100 in 11.04 seconds at the Jamaican trials.
The preliminary rounds of the women’s 100 begin Friday. The final is set for Saturday.
While Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce gets ready to finish off her remarkable career, another great sprinter, Usain Bolt, honored his esteemed colleague and encouraged the next generation of Jamaican athletes to do their best in their respective athletics career.
One of Jamaica’s most cherished sports idols, Fraser-Pryce, announced that her final performance would be in the Olympic Games in Paris this summer. This will signal the end of a remarkable and long career that lasted for more than ten years.
Fraser-Pryce’s outstanding speed and unmatched grace on the track have earned her the title of one of the best sprinters of all time. Her accomplishments at major championships and her track record of success highly contributed to the rise of the golden age of Jamaican sprinting.
The 37 years old athlete has won more individual medals than any other female sprinter in history. She hopes to end her career on a high note in Paris, where she will make her fifth Olympic Games appearance.
Bolt: “The women overall have been doing extremely well”
Bolt, the world’s fastest male athlete in the 100 and 200 meters, and eight-time Olympic gold medallist, stated: “It’s just outstanding. I think she’s showing me up because that means I could still be running, but for me it’s just outstanding to see her at this level and still going further and dominating, being in the medals always, it’s just…there’s no words, because I know the work that it takes.”
He also gave words of encouragement to Shericka Jackson and Elaine Thompson-Herah, who are also rising female athletes, following Fraser-Pryce.
“I want to tell her [Jackson] to just continue. I think a lot of times, we go in (a race) and think about breaking the record, that’s when it really puts a lot of pressure on us. I would tell her, just go in and run your best race. Do not think about the record. The moment you start thinking about records, that’s when you might tighten up at the end because you really want to get there, or you might make simple mistakes. So just go out there, think about executing and just run your hardest,” Bolt declared.
