Jamaica Sprint Legend To Retire After Paris 2024 Olympics
Three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce says she “owes” it to her family to retire after the 2024 Games.
The 37-year-old, regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time, won the 100m title in 2008 and 2012.
Jamaican Fraser-Pryce also won Tokyo 2020 Olympic relay gold, plus three of her 10 world titles, in a comeback after giving birth to her son in 2017.
“There’s not a day I’m getting up to go practise and I’m like, ‘I’m over this,'” she told Essence.com, external.
“My son needs me.
“My husband and I have been together since before I won in 2008. He has sacrificed for me.
“We’re a partnership, a team. And it’s because of that support that I’m able to do the things that I have been doing for all these years. And I think I now owe it to them to do something else.”
She added this year’s Olympics in Paris were about “showing people that you stop when you decide. I want to finish on my own terms”.
In total, Fraser-Pryce has won three Olympic golds, four silvers and a bronze.
She won world bronze behind American Sha’Carri Richardson and team-mate Shericka Jackson at last summer’s World Championships and will remain one of the main contenders at Paris 2024 in July and August.
She became the oldest woman to win the 100m world title with her victory in Doha in 2019 and extended that record by winning again aged 35 in Eugene in 2022 – 14 years after her first Olympic gold.
“You can have an impact, and it’s important to show people that you can’t be selfish,” she said.
“It’s not enough that we step on a track and we win medals. You have to think about the next generation that’s coming after you, and give them the opportunity to also dream – and dream big.”
BBC/Jamiu Ogunshe
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