The 100 meters will forever remember the legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
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00:00The 2024 Paris Olympic Games have already been wild.
00:07New faces have emerged as global talents, seasoned veterans have cemented their names
00:11as unstoppable forces in various events, and St. Lucia earned their very first medal in
00:18the history of the Games, as the unstoppable sprinter Julian Alfred is officially the Olympic
00:23gold medalist in the women's 100 meters.
00:26With track and field now officially on the schedule, the attention that these athletes
00:30are getting is through the roof, and it's great to see these runners, jumpers, and throwers
00:34getting this attention.
00:36However, one of the more bizarre stories currently circulating in the Olympics right now includes
00:41an athlete that many consider to be the greatest female sprinter of all time, it's Shelly
00:46Anne Fraser-Price of Jamaica.
00:49Now for those who don't know, Fraser-Price is considered the greatest sprinter ever on
00:53the women's side because she is now a five-time Olympian, she holds more sub-10.7 clockings
00:59than anyone else in history, and she has a total of 24 global medals to her name.
01:05She has been so prolific, so successful, and so consistent that only a few athletes such
01:10as Alison Felix and Usain Bolt can even compete with this kind of greatness.
01:14But for this year's Olympics, something very strange happened, and it happened in
01:18the semi-finals.
01:20After a solid opening heat, where she ran a time of 10.92, which was one of the fastest
01:25times in the opening heats, she mysteriously didn't even show up for the semi-finals.
01:30Now when this happened, it was a complete shock to many people around the world, as
01:34she was actually spotted going into the stadium, but this is where the rumors and the information
01:39really started to get kind of complicated, because there was this video circulating,
01:43showing both Sha'Carri Richardson and Shelly Anne Fraser-Price unable to get into the stadium.
01:49Now this confusion was in part because both Fraser-Price and Richardson were not staying
01:54in the traditional Olympic village.
01:56They didn't come by bus, they didn't come with their entire team, and since they came
02:00in a private vehicle, they were actually denied entry at this gate.
02:04Now this was already bizarre, because the day before, they both went into this exact
02:08entry point, so it delayed their ability to warm up and get ready for the race.
02:12And this is where things got even muddier, because many people were under the impression
02:16that Fraser-Price and Sha'Carri Richardson were severely hindered with their warm-up,
02:21and therefore were not able to compete well.
02:23Some even speculated that Fraser-Price was not able to get to the warm-up area in time,
02:28and therefore had to withdraw, because there was just not enough time.
02:32Over the course of just one or two hours, there were hundreds and hundreds of articles
02:36speculating what happened, saying that this was a big failure on the Paris Olympics part,
02:41and others were even saying that Shelly Anne Fraser-Price needs to sue the International
02:45Olympic Committee because of this oversight.
02:48But over the past couple of hours, the truth has come out, and the truth came out from
02:52Fraser-Price's team, who said that she actually was able to get inside the stadium she was
02:57able to get a decent warm-up in, but it was during the warm-up where she found out that
03:01she could not perform as well as she wanted because of a leg injury.
03:06Now for those of you who don't know, Fraser-Price has been riddled with injury for the past
03:09two years.
03:10She was injured last year in 2023, she did make it to the World Finals, but her build-up
03:14to that point was severely damaged, and the same thing happened this season.
03:19She was injured for much of the early months, and because of these nagging injuries, she
03:23said that she only had about a month or a month and a half of decent training heading
03:27into this year's Olympic Games.
03:28Indeed, she did run very well in the opening heats, but because of this injury, she was
03:33just not able to perform how she wanted, it was just too much pain, and therefore she
03:37had to withdraw.
03:39Now I've already expressed my sadness about this departure, because Fraser-Price really
03:43did have the ability to make it onto the medal podium, and given that she ran a 10.92 in
03:48the opening heats while shutting it down over the final 20 meters, and given that the bronze
03:53medal was earned by Melissa Jefferson at 10.92, it is almost a guarantee that Fraser-Price
03:58would have made it on the podium had this injury not been present.
04:02So it is painful to see this injury happen at arguably the most inopportune time for
04:06Shelly and Fraser-Price, but that's just what happened.
04:10Sometimes things do not go to plan, and sometimes you simply cannot compete because of your
04:14body not responding.
04:16At 37 years of age, Fraser-Price is already an undeniable legend, and from my opinion,
04:21I really do think she is the greatest female sprinter of all time, and no, you do not need
04:26to hold a world record to be the GOAT in a certain event.
04:29Either way, this was a rather tragic circumstance for Fraser-Price, I hope she heals up quickly,
04:34I hope she can compete more in the future, but for now, all the attention goes to Julian
04:38Alfred who won a well-deserved Olympic gold medal, and at 10.72, she absolutely crushed
04:44this field.
04:45Anyways, I will leave a few links down below in the description if you want to do more
04:49reading on Shelly and Fraser-Price and her injury, and for now, thank you all very much
04:53for watching, and as always, until next time.
05:08Transcribed by https://otter.ai