Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
This Friday (August 12th) Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce will take the track in Rio looking to make history. She will compete in the 100m sprint heats aiming to win the title for a third consecutive Olympics.
Jamaica has a long history of having successful track and field competitors and so Shelly-Ann began competing in athletics while she was still in school. Her first big event was the 2008 Olympics in Beijing. At this event she went in under the radar but ended up making a big splash – she ended up winning gold in the 100m in an impressive time of 10.78 seconds which was the second fastest time by a Jamaican woman. She was also a part of the 4 x 100 meters women’s relay team which made it to the final where they made an error with the baton exchange and did not finish the race.
The following year at the World Championships she won gold in the 100m as well as the relay event. At London 2012 she successfully defended her title winning in a time of 10.75 seconds. She also competed in the 200m event for the first time in a major event where she came in second place. She was also a part of the Jamaican women’s relay team who won silver in the 4 x 100 meter race.
Since then she has had even more success, winning 3 gold medals at the World Championships in 2013, gold in the Commonwealth Games in 2014 and two more gold medals at the World Championships in 2015.
As a result of her success and hard work she was made a good will ambassador for UNICEF, she also set up her own foundation, the Pocket Rocket Foundation, to help underprivileged children gain a full education. Shelly-Ann was rewarded for her hard work this year by being selected to be the flag bearer for Jamaica during the opening ceremony of the Games. She made quite a splash online with people loving her yellow and green hair! Hopefully this won’t be the last time people will be speaking highly of her.
-Michelle O’Brien
Junior Girl
Girl Museum Inc.