Two-time Olympic and five-time world 100m champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (Jamaica) will retire after the Paris 2024 Olympics, she said in an interview. The sprinter added that her decision was not due to age restrictions or a desire to stop competing, but to spend more time with her family.
“There’s not a day that goes by that I get up to work out and I’m not like, ‘I’m done with this. My son needs me. My husband (Jason Price) and I have been together since before I won in 2008. He sacrificed himself for me. We are in partnership, one team. And it is thanks to this support that I can do the things I have done all these years. And I think I owe them that now”, commented Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce.
She won her first Olympic gold at the Beijing 2008 Olympics, becoming the first Caribbean woman to win the 100m title. Four years later at London 2012 Olympics, she was only the third woman in history to defend an Olympic 100m title. A third gold came at Tokyo 2020 in the 4x100m relay. The athlete from Jamaica also has four Olympic silver medals and one bronze. Among her achievements are 10 gold medals from world championships.
If selected by Jamaica’s Olympic Committee for the Paris Games, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will be appearing in her fifth Olympic Games. She has focused on preparing for Paris, which she says is about “pushing boundaries” and “showing people that you stop when you decide to. I want to finish on my terms”.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is widely regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time, competing in the 60m, 100m and 200m, as well as the 4x100m relay. One of the most enduring track athletes in history, Fraser-Pryce’s career spans over a decade and a half, from the late 2000s to the 2020s. Her success on the track, including her consistency at major championships, helped to usher in the golden age of Jamaican sprinting.
