Fans of the legendary Jamaican Olympian and world champion sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who is considered one of the greatest sprinters of all time, were excited to learn that that the world champion runner will be among the competitors at the 2023 Botswana Golden Grand Prix in Gaborone on April 29, 2023. On March 17, 2023, World Athletics posted to Twitter that Fraser-Pryce would open the season at the Botswana Grand Prix; she has not yet made her debut appearance in the competition for 2023.
The career of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce spans more than 15 years, and she is credited with helping to introduce the “golden age” of Jamaican sprinting. She has won eight Olympic medals and was the first woman from the Caribbean to win a gold medal in the 100 meters. In 2012, she became the third woman in history to defend her 100-meter title at the Olympics. She won a silver medal at the 2020 Olympics in Tokyo 13 years after achieving her first Olympic win, making her the first athlete to medal in the 100 meters at four consecutive Olympic Games. Fraser-Pryce is the only sprinter to take home five world titles in the 100 meters. Her 2019 win made her the first mother in 24 years to take a world 100-meter title, and her 2022 victory at the age of 35 made her the oldest sprinter to become a world champion in history. She was the first woman to take the 100-meter, 200-meter, and 4×100-meter wins at a single World Championship and became the IAAF World Athlete of the Year in 2013. In 2014, with her win of the 60-meter world indoor title, she became the first female athlete to win world titles in all four sprint events at the same time. She has won more global 100-meter races than any sprinter in history, and she has been called the greatest 100-meter sprinter of all time by many experts. In 2019, the BBC included her in the list of the 100 most inspiring and influential women in the world. Honored by the American Friends of Jamaica, Fraser-Pryce ran a world record time of 10.62 seconds in the 100 meters in 2022, becoming the first woman in history to run that distance in under 10.70 seconds seven times.
Fans responded to the announcement of Fraser-Pryce’s pending appearance at the Botswana competition from World Athletics by expressing their excitement on Twitter. One fan simply posted an emoji of a goat, essentially describing Fraser-Pryce as the “Greatest of All Time,” while another wrote “Splendid…We will see her in our backyard. I will be there.” A practical fan asked, “How much are the tickets?” and another posted, “We can’t wait!” Other tweets in response to the announcement included, “Our Motherland BW welcomes you Shelly, the ultimate Pryce of Women Sprint,” “The goat is coming,” “Go Shelly!!!,” “I ain’t missing this for any reason.” “Fvckin legend,” and “Greatest 100m track athlete of all time … bar none! It needed to be said, and so I did.”
Photo – Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
