Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce: Is Jamaica's sprint legend done with the 200m?
As she looks ahead to the 2023 World Championships and Paris 2024, the Jamaican sprint queen may choose to focus mainly on the 100m where she has won a record five world titles.
Is three-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce done running the 200m?
After winning the Jamaican Sportswoman Award for the fifth time, the superstar sprinter revealed that she is likely to focus on the 100m in the future.
The 10-time world champion won silver in the 200m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. Was this her last major race at that distance?
“Last year I said that was it,” she said according to The Gleaner.
“And it may possibly be it for me for real and I’ll just focus on the 100m.”
Fraser-Pryce clinched her record fifth 100m world title in 2022, becoming the first athlete to win five world titles in a single individual running event - an accomplishment that may be influencing her decision to focus on her strongest race.
“The double is very hard. It is strenuous. The workload that you need to do it is definitely hard but I don’t know,” said Fraser-Pryce, who boasts a personal best of 21.79 seconds in the 200m.
Last year in Oregon, she topped the deepest ever women’s 100m race in 10.67 seconds - seven of the eight finalists managed to dip under 11 seconds. A few days later, Fraser-Pryce added silver in the 4x100m relay.
The 'Mommy Rocket' also ran the third fastest women’s 100m of all time clocking 10.60 at the 2022 Lausanne Diamond League.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce can look back at a stellar 200m career so far.
The 36-year-old secured a 200m silver medal at the 2012 London Olympics and became world champion a year later. After finishing fourth at Tokyo 2020 held in 2021, she bagged another 200m silver at last year's world championships.
That means that for the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Fraser-Pryce could target winning her sixth 100m gold and more 4x100m relay glory.
It won’t be the first time that Fraser-Pryce is ruling out the 200m.
She had dropped the longer sprint at the 2015 World Championships in Beijing, where she won the 100m and the 4x100m relay.