Fraser-Pryce may go to Paris 2024 – pundits

Motivation will be the key ingredient Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will need to keep going up to the 2024 Olympics. That is the indication from 2021 Olympic track and field team manager Ian Forbes and JAMALCO Track Club founder Dennis May.

Speaking on September 6, the day after Fraser-Pryce’s latest sub-11 second 100m run in Poland, Forbes praised the five-time individual World Champion.

“First of all, 10.81 seconds yesterday, amazing, amazing, amazing for someone who has been at it for so long. I think there’s far more in the tank,” he said. “Of course, we have to be very objective. There are one-off races, and there are rounds associated with championships and Games, so one has to factor that in, but I think once the motivation is still there and the will to win, the will to succeed, I think it is quite possible for her to go even further.”

Some fans may prefer if the 2008 and 2012 Olympic champion would walk away at the top. Fraser-Pryce herself had initially hinted that she could retire after the World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon next summer. However, she has reconsidered after running the Women’s 200m final at the Tokyo Olympics, saying “I believe there’s more to give. As you can see, I ran 21.9, I ran 21.7 earlier at the Jamaica National Championship. I ran 10.6, I’m still running 10.7s. It just shows the power of God and the gift and the talent that I have been given. When I’m ready when it’s time I’m hoping that someone along the way has been inspired.”

Fraser-Pryce has since ran 10.60s, a personal best and the third fastest time in history, since this statement.

FIERCE COMPETITOR

“Once she’s motivated, and observing her close up in Tokyo, I think she was highly motivated,” Forbes said. “I think she still is, and, of course, you know she’s a fierce competitor. So I think it’s quite possible. If she chooses to, you know she will put in the work.”

May believes she already has the motivation she needs.

“In her mind, I think she’s at a place where she doesn’t see barriers for herself,” May, who works in manufacturing and commerce as an efficiency and performance expert, said. “Shelly-Ann is competing for Jamaica, but she runs for a purpose. She has found her purpose, and the purpose is partially that she’s representing all these women in track and field around the world who may think it cannot be done in a man’s world, and she believes that it can be done. So every time she steps out on the track, she’s breaking barriers, and she’s also coming to the realisation to an extent in track and field that she has become an icon.”

May, whose club developed Olympic relay medallist Michael McDonald, said Fraser-Pryce will have to manage her time and energy sharply to last until Paris rolls around.

“She understands that as she is older and wiser,” he said, “and she realises that some of the things she used to do have to be put aside to maintain her body.”

He observed that the 34-year-old wants to make her son, Zyon, proud.

“She has her son and the representation for her son,” he said. “She’s emotionally stable, and mentally, she believes she can make a difference.”

Noting that she clocked a personal record (PR) of 10.60s in Lausanne, Switzerland, late last month, May said, “If at this stage, she can still run a PR, then the door is wide open.”

Fraser Pryce will be 37 when the 2024 Paris Games arrive.

sports@gleanerjm.com