The light that burned twice as bright but never dimmed

When Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce hurtled down the track as a schoolgirl, the brilliant career that would follow was not a foregone conclusion. She wasn’t the best schoolgirl athlete but her spirit meant failure was never going to be an option.

By 2008, when Usain Bolt was creating history by becoming the fastest-ever man over both 100 and 200-metres, Fraser-Pryce was beginning her story as well, becoming the first Jamaican women to win a 100-metre gold medal at the Olympics.

An era of dominance was to follow, with Fraser-Pryce leading the charge for Jamaican women. She would again strike gold in the 100-metres a year after the Beijing Olympics at the IAAF World Championships in Greece. She added to that gold by teaming up with three other very fast women to claim gold in the 4x100-metre relay.

Three years later, at the London Olympics, Fraser-Pryce continued to build the legend surrounding her name when she repeated as Olympic champion. She would create an unbeatable aura, winning the Diamond League in 2012, before again mining gold at the 2013 World Championships in Moscow.

Again, the list of firsts climbed for the woman affectionately called the ‘Pocket Rocket’, when she doubled her World Championship gold-medal count in Moscow, adding the 200-metre to her growing list of titles and becoming the first woman to achieve a double at any of the recognised world events. Again the 4x100-metre title went to Jamaica.

So successful was 2013 for Fraser-Pryce, she was named Female Athlete of the Year by the world governing body of the sports, the International Association of Athletics Federation (IAAF).

Fraser-Pryce never disappointed on the big stage, continuing her reign as the queen of world sprints into 2015 where she again won the World Championships 100-metre in Beijing. On her way to becoming a triple World Champion, she also made a stop at the top of the podium for finishing first at the Sopot World Indoor Championships in Poland. The shortest of the sprints indoors is 60 metres.

But, as is always the case with anybody who qualifies for the title of great, there were rough patches.

Fraser-Pryce struggled for a few years with a troublesome toe injury and when she took time off to have her son, Zyon, her comeback was not certain.

Her return to form was slow, and many believed she may never again reach the heady heights she had enjoyed for almost a decade of sprinting.

But they were wrong.

In 2019, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce went to Doha and crossed the tape first with a fist pump and then captured the imagination of the world with a lap of honour with her son in her arms.

Fraser-Pryce, apart from being only the second mother since 1995 to win a World Championship gold medal, at 32 years old, is also the oldest.

Along the way, Fraser-Pryce also showed a willingness to give others the opportunities she enjoyed in her early years, launching the Pocket Rocket Foundation in 2013.

The foundation is geared towards helping to develop young athletes by providing financial assistance for schooling.

Fraser-Pryce, called ‘Mommy Rocket’ after her exploits with Zyon in 2019, is the most decorated female sprinter of all time, with nine World Championship gold and two silver medals, to go along with two Olympic gold, three silver, and a bronze.

World Athletics, the name given to the IAAF since October of 2019, hailed Fraser-Pryce as "the greatest female sprinter of her generation," while In 2019, she was included on the BBC's list of 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world.

Fraser-Pryce, at 34 years old, is targeting her fourth Olympic games and says she only intends to look at retirement after the 2022 World Championships.

Even without counting whatever she manages to achieve over the next two years, she is already among the greatest sprinters of all time, male or female.

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