Multiple Olympic and world champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has advised her fellow Jamaican countrymen to focus on setting their own goals on the track rather than trying to emulate world record holder Usain Bolt.
Fraser-Pryce who is in Monica for the 2021 Wanda Diamond League meeting at the Stade Louis II on Friday (9), was speaking at a press conference for the event on Thursday.
Since Bolt, the eight-time Olympic champion and world record-holder over the 100m and 200m disciplines retired in 2017, the Jamaican male sprinters have struggled at global championships.
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Without the guidance of the triple Olympic 100m and 200m champion, the Jamaican men have not been as dominant internationally and Fraser-Pryce is urging the current generation to start focusing on themselves and not to try to be like Bolt.
“They don’t need to think about filling Usain’s shoes,” the two-time Olympic 100m champion said. “Those are huge shoes to fill. They just have to focus on themselves and on showing what they have to offer to the sport.”
Fraser-Pryce, the reigning world 100m champion, is again leading a talented group of Jamaican women sprinters to this summer’s Tokyo Olympic Games, and after running personal bests of 10.63s and 21.79s so far this season, the 34-year-old revealed that she’s in the “best shape of my life” heading into Japan.
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“I’d definitely say I am in the best shape of my life. I have never run 10.6 before, and what a time for that to happen,” she said.
“It’s been something that I have been working so hard towards to break the 10.7 barrier and to be able to do it under the conditions that I did, I know I am definitely able to go faster.”
After winning back-to-back Olympic 100m titles in 2008 and 2012, and finished third behind compatriot and former training partner Elaine Thompson-Herah at Rio 2016, Fraser-Pryce is aiming for a fourth successive Olympic 100m podium appearance.
