The Last Dance for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: What should we expect?

Your editor’s first one-on-one interview with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was at the Nike Pre Classic. One of Nike’s sports marketing managers had asked me to interview a few athletes who were less than well-known. For SAFP, in 2011, was the question of her fitness. I spent about fifteen minutes with Shelly-Ann and was transfixed. SAFP is just a lot of fun, quite thoughtful, and knows a lot about the sport. 

It is very hard for journalists like me to see athletes retire. I have watched Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce since 2008. She is iconic. 

Deji Ogeyingbo put this wonderful piece together on the amazing sprinter, who will be racing at her very last Olympics. 

The Last Dance for Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: What should we expect?

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce announced herself to the world inside the Bird’s Nest stadium at the Beijing 2008 Olympics when she claimed Gold. The then 21-year-old lanky sprinter, still raw and unrefined, took the world by surprise as she ushered in the next gem of sprinting royalty, especially for the Jamaicans. But under the bright lights of China, her feat went somehow unnoticed as Usain Bolt stole the show with his bravado and swagger that he became the talk of the town afterward.

Not that Fraser-Pryce wasn’t duly appreciated for her gift and achievements all through her years of competing and dominating women’s sprinting, but she was up against her countryman in terms of popularity and to be fair there was always going to be only one winner in that quest for fame. Still, the hardcore fans of the sports duly gave her accolades.

Between 2008 and 2017, Fraser-Pryce won a barrage of Olympic and world medals that if she had retired when Bolt did, she would still have been considered one of the all-time greats of the sport. But she didn’t and that’s why we are here. Seven years down the line, the diminutive sprinter who has transcended the sport in all ramifications will have her last dance at the Paris Olympics.

Paris is just some days away. Signs are emerging that her body may start to show the wear and tear of a long and illustrious career. Fraser-Pryce recently pulled out of the meet in Luzern, citing a niggling issue. In fact, she didn’t open her season till June and has only competed in Jamaica all season. In the last year, she has had to pull out from a couple of other meets due to this issue. Her…