World Athletics Championships 2025: She began her journey in Japan 18 years ago. She ended it there too with one last medal, one last roar from the crowd, and a farewell befitting a legend.
At 38, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce stood on a global podium for the 25th and final time, helping Jamaica's 4x100m team featuring the 21-year-old Clayton twins to a silver medal. It was a perfect passing of the baton, both literally and symbolically, from one generation to the next.
For nearly two decades, Fraser-Pryce was the face of women's sprint in the world. A five-time world 100m champion, a two-time Olympic gold medallist, and the most decorated female sprinter in history, she was never far from the spotlight.
In her illustrious career, she missed just one
major global event since 2007, the 2017 World Championships when she gave birth to her son Zyon. Remarkably, she returned to win five more medals as a mother, proving she was unstoppable. Her career was defined not just by speed, but resilience. She became the oldest woman to win a 100m world title in 2019 at age 32 and then stretched that record even further at 35 in Eugene.
Even this year, she was still chasing down rivals more than a decade younger, finishing sixth in the 100m final in Tokyo, just 0.19 seconds shy of the podium. But her farewell was not without heartbreak.
At the 2024 Olympics, a disrupted warm-up led to a panic attack that forced her out of the 100m semi-final, denying her the fairytale ending she longed for. Yet in trademark Fraser-Pryce fashion, she came back determined to write her own final chapter.
And what a send-off it was. The 60,000 fans in Tokyo's National Stadium roared louder for her introduction than for the home athletes. The ovation was not just for her medals, but for the inspiration she has been.
Melissa Jefferson-Wooden, who won double gold in Tokyo, called her "the greatest of all time. " Across nine days, tributes poured in from athletes who had grown up idolising the Jamaican known to the world as The Pocket Rocket. Now, with her spikes hung up, Fraser-Pryce leaves the track not just as a champion, but as a trailblazer whose speed, smile, and story will inspire generations to come.
