Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce second fastest in women's 100m heats at final Olympics to reach Paris 2024 semis
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce kicked off her fifth and final Olympics with the second fastest time of the heats to breeze into the women’s 100m semi-finals at Paris 2024.
The Jamaican sprint legend has said Paris will be her Olympic swansong, with the 37-year-old looking to bow out in style.
Fraser-Pryce has remarkably made the 100m podium at the past four Olympics, winning Beijing 2008 and London 2012, and there were no surprises on Friday at the Stade de France as the 10-time world champion posted an impressive 10.92, just 0.05 seconds behind the heats' overall pace-setter Marie-Josée Ta Lou-Smith.
The pair will go again in the semi-finals on Saturday at 19:50 local time, with the women's 100m final then taking place at 21:20, where Fraser-Pryce will be hoping to draw on all her experience to upset the reigning world champion Sha'Carri Richardson, who clocked 10.94 in her heat earlier.
It is difficult to remember an Olympics without Fraser-Pryce, but she has repeatedly insisted this will be her last.
"It's the final Olympic Games; let me repeat that,” Fraser-Pryce said this week, and so it is worth relishing each moment she takes to the track.
Once nicknamed the “Pocket Rocket” and now the “Mommy Rocket” as an inspirational mother of one, Fraser-Pryce was taking part in the last of eight heats on Friday morning.
And having seen rivals Richardson and Julien Alfred go sub-11 seconds already, it was Fraser-Pryce’s turn to make a statement.
She cut a relaxed figure in the call room, beaming away and chatting with her fellow athletes, and the noise levels rose when the popular Jamaican was announced to the crowd at the starting blocks.
Waving to the spectators with a huge smile, barely a minute later she got the job done, trailing only Ta Lou-Smith both in the heat and overall.
Ta Lou-Smith, 35, was fourth at both Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 in this event, and joins Fraser-Pryce on the list of names out to beat Richardson, the favourite going into Saturday.
Richardson is the fastest woman this year and ran 10.94 for the fourth fastest time in the heats, while British hope Daryll Neita matched Fraser-Pryce’s time of 10.92. Eight athletes went sub-11 seconds.