Olympic champion sprinter Fraser-Pryce to retire after Paris 2024

Three-time Olympic gold medalist sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce of Jamaica has announced that she will retire after participating in the Olympic Games in Paris this year and explained her decision to Essence.com in an interview.

"There's not a day I'm getting up to go practice and I'm like, 'I'm over this,'" Fraser-Pryce said. "My son needs me. My husband and I have been together since before I won in 2008. He has sacrificed for me. We're a partnership, a team. And it's because of that support that I'm able to do the things that I have been doing for all these years. And I think I now owe it to them to do something else."

Having made her Olympic debut in 2008 in Beijing, Fraser-Pryce won eight medals, including three golds, four silvers and one bronze in the women's 100-meter, 200-meter and 4x100-meter relay events in Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo. She is also the first 100-meter sprinter to win individual medals in four straight editions of the Olympic Games.

Fraser-Pryce also secured 10 titles at the World Athletics Championships and became the oldest woman to win the 100-meter gold at the World Championships in Doha, Qatar, in 2019. Three years later, she did it again in Eugene, Oregon. She decided to retire not because of age or form but because, in her words, "showing people that you stop when you decide. I want to finish on my own terms."

Back in 2021 at the Tokyo Olympics, Fraser-Pryce won the women's 4x100-meter relay gold medal with her teammates and secured the women's 100-meter silver. Her biggest opponents on the 100-meter tracks will be the reigning champion and her compatriot, Elaine Thompson-Herah, as well as the defending world champion, Sha'Carri Richardson of the U.S.

"It's not enough that we step on a track and we win medals," Fraser-Pryce said. "You have to think about the next generation that's coming after you and give them the opportunity to also dream – and dream big."