Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce presents her 100m singlet to Sebastian Coe in Oregon (© Getty Images)
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has donated her singlet from her winning 100m performance at the World Athletics Championships Oregon22 to the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA). In a ceremony during the eighth evening of competition on Friday (22), Fraser-Pryce presented the singlet to World Athletics President Sebastian Coe.
In presenting the singlet, on which Fraser-Pryce has signed herself as the ‘mommy rocket’, the Jamaican sprinting ace said: “I’m really excited to join two other Jamaicans (Usain Bolt and Veronica Campbell-Brown) who have their memorabilia in the museum. I’ve built a legacy that I hope inspires other women to believe in themselves and be relentless at pursuing their dreams.
“As a now five-time world 100m champion, I’m happy to share this moment in history for me and so many others with the Museum of World Athletics, where champions live on forever.”
Coe, upon receiving Fraser-Pryce’s singlet, said: “I am delighted to accept the generous donation of the Oregon22 singlet from 10-time world and three-time Olympic gold medallist Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce in Hayward Field. These championships have already seen her win her fifth world 100m title, and yesterday the 200m silver.
“The World Athletics Heritage Collection and the Museum of World Athletics (MOWA) are honoured to receive this item, which represents the illustrious career of one of the all-time greats of sprinting. We thank Shelly-Ann for her support of our Heritage programme, which celebrates and honours our sport’s history - a history which she is now indelibly a part of.”
Fraser-Pryce became a five-time World Championships gold medallist in the 100m on day three of this year’s championships, then earned a silver medal in the 200m on day seven. In four Olympic Games, the diminutive sprinter has also collected two golds, a silver and a bronze in the 100m and 200m. For the high level of her performances and the length of her career, Fraser-Pryce is widely proclaimed the women’s 100m ‘GOAT’ – the greatest of all time.
As a student at Wolmer’s High School for Girls, she won the 17-and-under 100m at ‘Champs’, the Jamaican High School Championships, in 2004. The next two years she finished second and fourth in the 19-and-under 100m, before enrolling at UTech, the University of Technology in Kingston, where she met UTech and MVP coach Stephen Francis.
As a first-year university student in 2007, Fraser-Pryce finished fifth in the Jamaican Championships, and was selected for the national relay team, earning a silver medal in the 4x100m at the World Championships in Osaka, Japan. From then on, Fraser-Pryce was on a rocket to greatness.
In 2008, she broke 11 seconds for the first time in the 100m when she finished second at her national championships, then won the first of her global titles with her victory at the Beijing Olympic Games.
Fraser-Pryce won her first World Championships 100m in 2009 and ran second leg on Jamaica’s victorious 4x100m team, the first of four such titles she has won.
The fallow year of 2010, with no major international championship events, and 2011, when she finished fourth in the World Championships in Daegu and led off the silver medal-winning 4x100m team, were down years for Fraser-Pryce. But she came back with a vengeance in the Olympic year of 2012, winning the London Games 100m and earning silvers in the 200m and the 4x100m.
The World Championships of 2013, held in Moscow, may have been the pinnacle of Fraser-Pryce’s astounding career. She won a sprint triple, with victories in the 100m, 200m and relay. To top off the year, she was named the World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year.
In 2014, Fraser-Pryce won the World Indoor Championships 60m, one of her few forays into indoor athletics. Since then, she has maintained her form in the 100m with three more World Championships golds, and silver and bronze in the Olympics. In the 4x100m, she has helped Jamaica to wins in the World Championships of 2015 and 2019, and Olympic gold in 2021 and silver in 2016, with this year’s World Championships 4x100m final yet to come.
Dave Johnson for World Athletics Heritage
