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The Jamaican sprint legend has no intentions of hanging her spikes any time soon
Multiple Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has no intensions of quitting athletics any time soon.
Fraser-Pryce has won 10 gold medals at the World championships and three at the Olympics, across 100m, 200m and 4,400m relay, and is still looking forward to this year’s Worlds in Budapest in August and next year’s Games in Paris.
At 36, most runners are either retired or coming to the end of their careers, but the Jamaican sprint sensation is inspired by athletes in other sports who compete beyond their 40th birthday, hence the need for her to keep going strong.
“I still feel good, I still feel hungry, I am still working and it’s just amazing to see what I have accomplished over the years, the body of work,” Fraser-Pryce told Athletics Weekly.
“At this stage, it’s really also about impact, showing other female athletes or athletes over the world what they can do if you really have that conviction.
“The things that we tell ourselves if we continue to work at that then anything is possible. Greatness is possible from that so for me, it’s getting up every morning and still feeling rejuvenated, still feeling like there is something I am chasing that it’s right there and I am almost touching it.
“It just needs a little more push and I am hoping that I continue not just to inspire other athletes but myself. I am 36, my coach tells me every day; ‘You know you are 36, right?’ And I am like ‘yeah that’s crazy.’
“Gone are the days at 36 when most, if not majority, of athletes would have been retired at home doing something else but ageism is something we should talk about because I hate the fact that a basketball, football player can play at 40, NASCAR driver F1 is 42 or 50 and he gets to continue but why can’t I continue?
“It’s my job and as long as I am healthy, then I am going to show up and rewrite the books. I am excited about that.”
‘Mommy Rocket,’ as she is popularly known, is the favourite to retain her 100m title in Budapest while she also seeks to reclaim the 200m gold that evaded her at last year’s World Championships.
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