One of Jamaica’s most decorated Olympians, Veronica Campbell-Brown has announced her retirement on the eve of Jamaica’s Olympic trials.
Campbell-Brown, who won back-to-back Olympic 200m titles to lead Jamaica’s ascent to the top of global sprinting, made the announcement in an emotional post to social media.
“As I take off my spikes never to put them on again, this girl from Clarks Town walks away happy and contented with a race well run,” was posted on the 39-year-old’s Instagram page.
“Through the grace of God, I have climbed from a small town in Trelawny, Jamaica up the ladder of success to become one of the most decorated women in the Olympic Games and World Championships history.”
Campbell-Brown sprinted at five Olympics from 2000 to 2016, earning eight medals, one shy of the Olympic women’s track and field record.
At the age of 22, Campbell-Brown represented Jamaica at the 2004 Athens Olympics, winning gold in the 200m, ahead of the favorite, American Allyson Felix. Her win made her the first Jamaican and Caribbean woman in the history of the Olympic games to win a sprint Olympic title.
Campbell-Brown then teamed up with Aleen Bailey, Tayna Lawrence, and Sherone Simpson in the finals of the 4 × 100 m. VCB ran a scintillating anchor leg as Jamaica went on to win the women’s 4 × 100 m. Jamaica created history as it was the first time Jamaica had won the 4 × 100 m relay at the Olympics.
She repeated her 2004 win in 2008, again relegating Felix to silver.
Veronica Campbell-Brown also excelled at 100m, winning a world title in 2007 and Olympic bronze medals in 2004 and 2012.
In 2019, she was honored with a statue in a park outside the National Stadium in Kingston, along with other champions from her era — Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Asafa Powell. Campbell-Brown came from the same parish as Bolt and the same high school as another legendary Jamaican female sprinter, Merlene Ottey.
The Olympian said she will now turn her focus to parenting, and her entrepreneurial and charity ventures including the VCB Foundation.
