By Byron Goodchild
Three time olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce will retire after the Paris games saying she owes it to her family.
She became the first 100m sprinter to win individual medals in four consecutive olympic games and is the oldest woman to win the 100m world title after taking gold in Eugene in 2022 at the age of 35.
The Jamaican’s legacy started in the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she became the first Caribbean woman to win gold in the woman’s 100m.
She ended up strengthening her legacy by retaining her 100m title in the London 2012 Olympics adding herself to the select few who has already done it.
Despite battling a toe injury, she was still able to win bronze in 2016 Rio Olympics and a silver in relay.
After giving birth in 2017, she won another Olympic silver and a relay gold in Tokyo 2020.
On her reasoning for retiring Pryce said
“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,” she added. “I think I now owe it to them to do something else.”
While retirement is a huge stage in an athletes career, the Jamaican’s fully focusing on the 2024 Olympics where she aims to prove to herself she can push boundaries at 37 years old.
“It is about showing people that you stop when you decide. I want to finish on my own terms,”
With it being 14 years since her Olympic debut, Fraser-Pryce has embarked on countless memories which will live in the history book for a long time.
With her final Olympics approaching she aims to close out her career in historic fashion.
