Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s career was almost derailed before it even started as forces tried to threaten to remove her from Jamaica’s top three representatives at the 2008 Beijing Olympics.
But as fate would have it, she kept her rightful place and stunned the world with a magnificent victory. And the rest is history, as she will go down as one of the greatest sprinters of all time who continues to deliver at the highest levels even after motherhood and being in her mid-30s.
She is a two-time Olympic Games 100m gold medallist and a four-time 100m medallist, a six-time World Champion, including an unprecedented five 100m gold medals. In the 200m, she has won an Olympic Games silver and a World Championships gold medal.
Her cabinet shows eight Olympic Games medals, including the Beijing Olympic 100m gold when she became the first Caribbean woman to win the 100m gold, and four years later she became the third woman to successfully defend the 100m title.
Injury-plagued in 2016 in Rio, she still managed a bronze and last year after 13 years at the Olympics, she mined silver in the 100m Tokyo Olympics, becoming the first athlete to win a medal in the 100m at four consecutive Summer Olympic Games.
Decorated with 14 medals (10 gold and four silver) at the World Championships, Fraser-Pryce is the only athlete to win five 100m titles, with her win in 2019 being the first mother in 24 years to claim a global 100m title, while her win in Oregon, USA, last month at 35 made her the oldest ever world champion sprinter.
When she won the sprint double and the 4x100m relay in 2013, she was the first woman to sweep the sprints at a single World Championships, thus being named IAAF World Athlete of the Year.
And when she won the 60m Indoor title the following year, she became the first-ever female athlete to hold world titles in all four sprint events at the same time.
The “Pocket Rocket” as she’s known for her petite, yet explosive start, is the third fastest woman over 100m with 10.60 seconds, and the fastest mother of all time.
In 2019 she was included on the BBC’s list of 100 inspiring and influential women in the world.
