TOKYO (AP) — It certainly wasn’t Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s greatest race.
But in getting to the core of who she is and how to define the most decorated female 100-meter sprinter to ever put on spikes, that at her son’s sports day at school says a lot.
Fraser-Pryce beat all those parents in the short sprint by a veritable mile. The drone footage of the scene is hilarious. At 38, with enough medals, trophies and other hardware to fill a warehouse, Fraser-Pryce surely didn’t have to line up for that one.
But she was a parent and her son, Zyon, was a student and ... why not? Did the thought of easing up a bit – letting some lucky mom or dad say she hung with, or beat, the champ – ever cross her mind?
“I would never do that,†Fraser-Pryce said with a laugh. “It’s not in my DNA to do it. What amazes me is that they actually think they stood a chance!â€
Retirement delayed for a year
Fraser-Pryce will be back on the starting line this week for the 100 meters at world championships in Tokyo – her eighth and, she says, final appearance on track’s biggest stage outside of the Olympics.
This is a retirement that has been delayed by a year after things at what was supposed to be her closing act – at the Paris Games a year ago – went dreadfully wrong.
It’s a chance for the three-time Olympic gold medalist, the champion for women in sports and the athlete many have watched grow up – from a 21-year-old brace-faced unknown in Beijing to an all-time great – to go out on her own terms.
On the day of the 100-meter final in Paris last year, a video of Fraser-Pryce to the stadium popped up on social media.
It happened to several sprinters that day, including the American favorite at the time, Sha’Carri Richardson.
The Olympics called it a simple mix-up. The video shows Fraser-Pryce clearly under duress, as she argues that, up to that day – the most important day -- she and other athletes had gone in through the same gate where they were now being denied.
She stood there for around 30 minutes seeing if the situation would be resolved. She saw busloads of athletes passing by, watching the scene unfold. She felt humiliated.
By the time she finally made it to the warmup track, an hour later than scheduled, nothing felt right. If nothing else, finely tuned sprinters are creatures of habit. Fraser-Pryce, running well that season and in the mix for a medal, had lost her mojo.
“I’ve had injuries before, and I’ve had setbacks, and I’ve really been tough and got it done,†she said. “And this time, I wasn’t able to get to the line. It’s the first time in my entire career, I had a panic attack. That’s what the unfinished business is — is having the opportunity to walk away knowing I gave everything.â€
Closing chapter to an unparalleled career
When she made her Olympic debut in 2008, Fraser-Pryce concedes she didn’t really know what kind of sprinter she might be. She was hoping to simply make the final.
“That was the only goal I had going in,†she said.
She won that night, leading a Jamaican medal sweep that generated more headlines than her individual win.
When she won again in 2012, she was officially royalty – up there with Gail Devers and Flo Jo and all the greats to ever run track -- even if her win, once again, got overshadowed by the spectacle of Usain Bolt and the overall dominance of her country.
Yet other than the braces, which came off in 2010, the trademark colorful wigs and the nickname “The Pocket Rocket" — homage to the 5-foot-tall burst of speed and color that she was – Fraser-Pryce’s story wasn’t all that well-known outside of Jamaica and, specifically, around Waterhouse, a working-class community in Kingston, where she grew up sharing a bed with two brothers and her mom in a house without an indoor toilet.
Motherhood brings more wins and a story about resilience
The story, however, gained more texture and heart after her son, Zyon, was born in 2017.
She sat on the bed and cried after learning she was pregnant. Some friends were wishing her congratulations on a career that now, they suggested, was certainly over.
“Everyone’s entitled to their opinion,†she said. “I knew how I felt and I knew I wasn’t ready to go. I had something left to do, and I stayed focused on the goal.â€
That quote came in 2019, at world championships in Doha. Fraser-Pryce became a symbol of a growing phalanx of runners-turned-mothers – including Allyson Felix, Alysia Montano and Faith Kipyegon -- who were tired of being written off just because they’d had kids.
Three years later in Oregon, after Fraser-Pryce won her fifth world title in the 100 – this one after another Jamaican, Elaine Thompson-Herah, had won two Olympics and seemingly left her far behind – she was shedding another stereotype.
“So many people believe that when women turn 35, it somehow diminishes our gift, our talent,†Fraser-Pryce said after that one. “But I’m still able to line up and compete, and that is very special.â€
She’s 38 now. In Tokyo, there will be women who have run better times than her when she lines up one last time. But none of them have gone through as many comebacks and come out winning as the sprinter now known as the “Mommy Rocket.â€
She runs a charitable foundation called the Pocket Rocket Foundation, which has offered almost 100 scholarships to students across her country.
“I know what it feels like to have the dream but lack the resources,†Fraser-Pryce said in an interview earlier this year with Marie Claire.
Running one more time will help spread that message to a broader audience one more time. But more than anything, she is using her latest second chance – this time, a second chance to say goodbye – to spread the word about resilience.
“I think resilience is knowing your power and owning your power,†Fraser-Pryce said. “It’s knowing what you’re capable of and trusting in that and believing in that.â€
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