Passing the baton – quite literally – to the next generation, with one final medal secured, an icon bowed out.
Back in Japan, the nation where she made her first appearance on the world stage 18 years ago, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce made the 25th – and last – global podium of her illustrious career.
Nine world championships and five Olympic Games later, the 38-year-old signed off in Tokyo by helping a Jamaican quartet featuring 21-year-old twin sisters Tia and Tina Clayton to world 4x100m silver.
As she posed for photos with her adoring fans in the stands, there was no doubt the record five-time world 100m champion had departed the sport as a legend.
The most decorated female 100m sprinter in history, Fraser-Pryce has missed just one of the sport’s past 15 major global competitions.
That single absence came at the World Championships in London in 2017, when, one day after the 100m final, she gave birth to her son Zyon.
“I have had an amazing career and today’s medal is the icing on the cake,” said Fraser-Pryce, the third-fastest woman in history with a personal best of 10.60 seconds.
“My son will be excited. Today is a full circle moment for me, I was a reserve at my first world championships in Japan in 2007. I couldn’t have it any other way.
“I am grateful for the medals, the stadiums and the crowds where I have competed throughout my career.
“I have some plans and I want to focus on advocacy, and support women and athletes. I want to continue to make an impact.”
Fraser-Pryce would make five global podiums following her comeback as a mother, including winning back-to-back world 100m titles as she wrote her name into the history books.
She became the oldest woman to claim a 100m world title in 2019, extending that record by three years aged 35 in Eugene,
A two-time Olympic 100m champion, Fraser-Pryce said prior to the 2024 Olympic Games that she “owes” it to her family to retire.
However, she was unable to achieve the fairytale ending she had hoped for.
Having withdrawn before her 100m semi-final, she later revealed a disruption to her pre-race routine caused a panic attack after she struggled to gain entry to the warm-up track.
Known as the ‘The Pocket Rocket’, the diminutive five-foot tall Fraser-Pryce was determined to end things on her own terms this year.
She was able to do just that, finishing sixth in the 100m final – still within 0.19 seconds of a podium consisting of athletes aged at least 14 years her junior – before bowing out on the podium.
“I have given so much to this sport,” Fraser-Pryce said after the 100m.
“A lot of people might question why come back [after giving birth], but I think it is so important to finish on your own terms.
“Last year I didn’t get that opportunity, it was so hurtful, and for me it was just a big blessing to be able to do that. Maybe, when I head home, I will have all the feels.”
