![]() ![]() ![]() ANDREJ ISAKOVIC/AFP/Getty Imagesįor four-time Olympian Fraser-Pryce, a global pandemic has been just one of the many challenges that she’s faced during her career. Her teammates agree, with Fraser-Pryce adding that, “the reception and the people, just the joy and the energy is just unlike anywhere else we’ve been.”ĭespite crossing the finish line in a spectator-less stadium, Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson say that Japanese fans have made them feel welcome in Tokyo. When Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson crossed the finish line on Saturday, they were met with little cheering, due to Tokyo’s coronavirus state of emergency and lack of fans throughout much of the Games.īut for 27-year-old Jackson, the welcome from Japanese fans has been energetic nonetheless. “I think when each of us go home and we look at our medal, we’ll understand that how great of an achievement we have done, given the circumstances,” Fraser-Pryce adds. I know for me at the gym, I have to be lifting in a mask and I don’t think that’s healthy, but you know, it’s something that you have to do,” she says. You have to make sure that you’re otherwise restricted in certain areas. “I think it was very difficult because for a lot of us you can’t travel, a lot of Covid tests. So for that to play twice in the Olympic Stadium, it warms my heart,” she adds.Īfter the Games were postponed for a year in March 2020 due to the ongoing coronavirus pandemic, the emotional and financial burden of training for Tokyo 2020 was exacerbated – something Fraser-Pryce can attest to. “For us to come out here on an international platform to raise our flag, our anthem is actually our prayer. We don’t party, we don’t drink, we don’t eat bad,” she says. I don’t think people know what we have gone through. “It takes a lot of hard work and dedication and sacrifice for us as athletes. Ryan Pierse/Getty Imagesĭefending champion Thompson-Herah, who won the women’s 100m title during her first Games at Rio in 2016, says she appreciates the sacrifices that athletes and their teams make to keep their Olympic dreams alive. Thompson-Herah celebrates winning the gold medal in the women's 200m final on August 03 in Tokyo. She went on to win the women’s 200m final on Tuesday, becoming the first ever woman to win the 100m and 200m sprint double at two consecutive Olympic Games. I don’t want to drain my energy off getting too excited for the first medal I have goosebumps.” “I have to just continue to have that focus. “Honestly, I’m shaking right now I’m speechless,” Thompson-Herah says. But she doesn’t want the excitement of one Olympic victory to cloud the chance of another. ![]() Two-time Olympian Thompson-Herah made history on Saturday, when she broke Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 33-year-old record set in Seoul to win the gold with a time of 10.61 seconds. “So for us to repeat that once more, it’s a good feeling to be a part of that history, and to be amongst these ladies.” “I’ve seen that when I was not an elite athlete watching back home,” she says. We are a blessed, blessed nation,” she says, paying homage to her predecessors, including Merlene Ottey and Deon Hemmings – the first ever Jamaican woman to win Olympic gold.įor Thompson-Herah, who grew up watching Fraser-Pryce as a youngster, having the opportunity to share such a momentous victory is “a wonderful feeling.” “I think, boy, you know, God has been good to us. It’s been 13 years since Fraser-Pryce last stood shoulder-to-shoulder on an Olympic podium with her teammates after the women’s 100m, and she says victory tastes sweeter the second time around. I mean, it’s awesome to be able to rise to the top of the world again,” she adds. “I guess I had the honor of being a part of both,” Fraser-Pryce told CNN Sport’s Coy Wire. The then 21-year-old Fraser-Pryce ran the event in 10.78 seconds to claim gold, just a day after Olympic legend Usain Bolt won his – and his country’s – first-ever men’s 100m Olympic crown.Īt this year’s Tokyo Olympics, a streak of green, black and yellow flashed past the finish line in the women’s 100m final once again, when Team Jamaica earned a clean sweep of the podium – this time with Elaine Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson taking gold, silver and bronze respectively. In 2008, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce made Olympic history at the Beijing Games, when she and fellow Jamaican sprinters Sherone Simpson and Kerron Stewart won their island’s first-ever podium sweep in the women’s 100m final. ![]()
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