32 year old mom , Fraser-Pryce clinched her fourth 100m World title

Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce says she hopes to inspire women who are thinking about starting a family as she celebrated winning the 100m at the World Athletics Championships by taking her young son on her lap of honour.

“It was hard. I was really scared when I had to do a C-section and was out for nearly 10 weeks. I was unable to lift weights on my back. So it was a long journey coming back physically and mentally because I was 30 and everyone else was running fast. I was worried about whether I was going to come back OK. I just really worked hard. When I heard people said I should call it a day, I just knew I wasn’t ready to go. I knew I had something left to do. I never lost focus on the goal and the dream.

Tonight was one of those moments I am really proud of because for women in athletics it’s very hard to take a break and come back to sprinting. It took a lot of work and a lot of sacrifice.

“Having Zyon being able to witness tonight is definitely a moment I’ll cherish. He reminded me of how much I had to work and fight as a woman. The world believes you should wait until you’re finished to have a baby, but I had other plans.”

On how she felt before the semi-final and the final:

“I was tired in both because I didn’t get any sleep last night, which was so weird for me. I got to sleep about 4am this morning.

“I was just trying to make sure I ran the rounds as best as I could. I’m an experienced athlete and I just did what I needed to do tonight.”

On silver medallist Dina Asher-Smith (GBR):

“Dina had a PB and national record which is awesome. She will definitely inspire a lot of athletes in Great Britain to know you don’t have to come from US and Jamaica to get a medal, you can come from somewhere else and do well.” 

On the size of the crowd:

“I did notice that the stadium wasn’t full but for me it’s part of athletics. The world wants to see a championships and Doha got the rights to host it. You just have to give and take.

“I wanted to put on a good performance, not just for the crowd but for me as a person. Even though there were only a thousand people in the stands, the two most important people were there able to see me compete. I can’t ask for anything else.”

On changing her hair colour after the first round on Saturday:

“I was actually planning on changing my hair between each race but I’m not running the 200m now so no-one is going to see the next colour.

“But I am in the relay, so I will bring a new one out for that.”

On the stadium light show before the start of the final:

“I was trying not to get flustered by it. I was just thinking, ‘Nail the start and then we’re in business.’”

On how close she is to breaking her national record of 10.70:

“I think I am just at the door and it will open. I think it will come. Tonight after doing what I did I hope somewhere along the line it will come. Tonight I am just grateful to be able to dip below 10.80.”

On why she’s not doing the 200m:

“My coach made the decision because he believes I’m not really back as yet and he didn’t want to push me too much. But we can definitely do the double in 2020.”

Representing  Jamaica
Olympic Games
	2008 Beijing	100 m
	2012 London	100 m
	2012 London	200 m
	2012 London	4×100 m relay
	2016 Rio de Janeiro	4×100 m relay
	2016 Rio de Janeiro	100 m
World Championships
	2009 Berlin	100 m
	2009 Berlin	4×100 m relay
	2013 Moscow	100 m
	2013 Moscow	200 m
	2013 Moscow	4×100 m relay
	2015 Beijing	100 m
	2015 Beijing	4×100 m relay
	2019 Doha	100 m
	2007 Osaka	4×100 m relay
	2011 Daegu	4×100 m relay
World Indoor Championships
	2014 Sopot	60 m
World Athletics Final
	2008 Stuttgart	100 m
	2009 Thessaloniki	100 m
Commonwealth Games
	2014 Glasgow	4×100 m relay
NACAC Championships
	2018 Toronto	4×100 m relay
Pan American Games
	2019 Lima	200 m