Olympic 100m champion, Shelly-Ann Fraser (© Getty Images)
Jamaica waits 50 years for an Olympic 100m sprint champion; and, like London buses, two come along in quick succession. And as in the men’s sprint, it was the ‘baby’ of the team, Shelly-Ann Fraser who prevailed, with her two colleagues finishing equal second, the first ever women’s sprint ‘clean-sweep’ at the Olympic Games.
That accomplishment had the 21-year-old Fraser jumping around the track at the finish with as much elan as she had applied to streaking ahead of her competitors. “Oh my God, that is too much,” she said immediately afterwards in the ‘mixed zone’ where the media gets reaction from the finalists. “When I crossed the line, and saw Sherone (Simpson) and Kerron (Stewart) there, that was the moment. I wouldn’t trade it for anything else”.
Everyone knew, even before the Games that the Jamaicans would be a threat to what has been, for many years a US-owned event. But few thought that Fraser would be the one to take gold, and with such a fast time, 10.78sec, and by such a margin, two-tenths, the same as colleague Usain’s Bolt the night before. A year ago, her best was only 11.31sec.
Born in Kingston, but raised in Waterhouse, about 50 kilometres north of the capital, like so many successful athletes, there is a parent, in this case her mother, Maxine Simpson, who used to be a runner, but never got an opportunity to pursue track after her teenage years.
The US protest over an alleged false start meant that the medal ceremony was delayed until Monday, so we are indebted to colleague, Kayon Raynor of the Jamaica Observer, for some first-hand information on the little-know Fraser, who is coached incidentally, by Stephen Francis, Asafa Powell’s coach.
"My mother is probably one of the biggest reasons why I'm running,” says Fraser. “Because she used to run and she stopped because she got pregnant with my big brother (24-year-old Omar)”. She also has a 20-year-old brother, Andrew.
Fraser implied to Raynor that though her family is close-knit, they were far from wealthy, and experienced deprivation during her early years. "My mother encourages me a lot and I really love her because when nobody else was there, she always made sure to provide for us. I ran at Primary Champs bare-footed, and I really put in a lot of hard work to get to where I am now.”
Prior to the Games, Fraser, said, "I just want to go out there and do my best and I'm anticipating great results, so for me it's just great, honestly, to be here”. Well, it’s even greater now, and with the relays and the 200 metres races to come, chances are it’ll be greater still, both for Fraser and for her colleagues.
Pat Butcher for the IAAF
