Fraser-Pryce enjoying the track, looking forward to 2023

FIVE-TIME WORLD 100-metre champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has described 2022 as a year in which she found her voice and began enjoying track and field more than maybe anytime before.

Fraser-Pryce, who turned 36 yesterday, enjoyed a campaign which saw her run seven sub-10.7-second 100m times, including a 10.67 championship record clocking at the World Athletics Championships in Eugene in July. She also won her fifth Diamond League 100m title and, for her stellar season, was shortlisted for the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year award.

Now in background training for 2023, Fraser-Pryce reflected on what 2022 has meant for her, calling last season the most fun she has had competing and hoping it will continue next year.

“I think this year I’ve had more fun than I have ever had in track and field, and I owe that to the fact that I kind of stopped listening to the other voices and started listening to my voice. I started to just be who I am,” Fraser-Pryce told The Gleaner. “There are so many different sides to us as human beings. If we can embrace all of those sides, you are still the jovial fun clown, and then you are a businesswoman and you are a mom. You are so many different things and to be able to experience it in its element was remarkable.”

Coming into who she is can be credited to the atmosphere that has been built by the Elite Performance camp, led by head coach Reynaldo Walcott, which has grown in size over the last couple of years, but also on a shift in mindset.

“I was in a space where it was just a lot of fun. I felt no pressure. I didn’t really care about the expectations of others. I knew that when I lined up, it was me first. I had to do it for me first and that was so important, not running with any weight and just knowing that whenever you cross the line, the aim is always to win. Every time I line up, it’s to win, even though I’m not in the best shape of my life, we want to win. And I’m super competitive. I’m having fun but the atmosphere has a lot to do with it.”

Background training ahead of this season has been challenging for Fraser-Pryce but the most decorated 100-metre sprinter of all time says that she is navigating it and is excited to push herself further in 2023.

“The workload is up so much, that you have to try and make sure that you get it done. Between being a mom and being an athlete, it has been a little bit difficult this background season, but we are making it work,” Fraser-Pryce said.

“So as we go, we continue to put our best foot forward and trust that God will align everything how it’s supposed to be for the upcoming season.”

daniel.wheeler@gleanerjm.com