Can Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce stop Sha’Carri Richardson in the battle for 100m gold?
Jamaica’s women’s 100m supremacy at the Olympic Games is in danger of coming to an end in Paris 2024.
The meteoric rise of US dynamo Sha’Carri Richardson has brought this reality into relief following her gold-medal run at last year’s Athletics World Championships in Budapest.
Standing in her way is Jamaican stalwart and sprinting extraordinaire, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce. Considered one of the greatest sprinters of all time, Fraser-Pryce boasts five world titles and two Olympic gold medals in track and field’s blue-riband event.
But at age 37, does she have enough in the tank to save Jamaica’s blushes in the twilight of her career? One would be silly to bet against the 'Mommy Rocket' even though she has raced sparingly in the build-up to Paris 2024 – which she has emphasised – would be her Olympic swan song.
"It's the final Olympic Games; let me repeat that,” Fraser-Pryce told journalists this week in Paris.
“It's crazy to even think about the fact that it has been five straight Olympic Games. I'm really looking forward to the experience, stepping on the track and always, once I get on the line, I'm giving 100 percent at all times and that's what I'm looking forward to.”
She got her Paris campaign off to a promising start as she posted the second-fastest time in Round one (10.92), just 0.05 seconds behind the heats' overall pace-setter Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith. Richardson clocked 10.94.
The Jamaican superstar has only five races in her legs this season, Paris 2024 is just her third competitions this year.
Fraser-Pryce finished third at the Jamaican trials at the end of June to earn her place in the Olympic team and posted a season’s best of 10.91 seconds in the semi-finals which ranks her ninth in the world this year.
Richardson, in turn, tops the list with the blistering 10.71s she clocked to win the women’s 100m final at the US Trials to qualify for her maiden Olympics.
Fraser-Pryce will feel an added sense of responsibility to protect Jamaica’s 100m legacy at the Games after defending champion Elaine Thompson-Herah suffered an Achilles tendon injury at the end of June.
To add insult to injury, Olympic 100m bronze medallist Shericka Jackson withdrew from the short-sprint event on the eve of the Games to focus on her pet 200m event.
Fraser-Pryce will, no doubt, accept the challenge as she looks to add the Paris 2024 gold medal on her final hurrah to the back-to-back titles she won in London 2012 and Rio 2016. Don’t put it past Fraser-Pryce to do just that! Jamaica is counting on her.
The women’s 100m starts on Friday (2 August) with the heats, before the semi-finals and the finals a day later on Saturday (3 August).
Fraser-Pryce will likely return to Stade de France on 8 August for the 4x100m relays ahead of Friday’s final on 9 August.