The girl who laughs... and wins

Many journalists try to convince themselves that an anniversary is more than a mere chronological curiosity: rarely does the coincidence of dates represent anything more than a reminder. However, from time to time, an anniversary becomes the trigger needed to tell a story. Or to honor a character.

Yesterday, December 27, Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce celebrated her birthday, who only the naturalness with which she assumes her excellence prevents her from being considered one of the three most important sprinters in history.

2009 World Athletics Championships. Berlin and that imposing stadium that, when updated, did not lose the original physiognomy of 1936, those contradictory days when Olympism was torn between the magnificence of Jesse Owens and the sinister figure of Adolf Hitler. A year after her consecration in the 100 meters flat in Beijing, Shelly Ann confirmed her hegemony in the same test of the first world championship that I was proud to cover.

None of the privileged occupants of that press streamer that athletes must pass through when leaving the track and on their way to the locker room would have guessed that that brunette, just over a meter and a half tall, with a serene tone and a shy smile, had just confirmed her status as the fastest woman on the planet. This is how many of the geniuses of sports tend to be: extraordinary phenomena that, off the slopes, swimming pools or courts seem common to the neighbor that we can find in the bakery in our neighborhood.

Humble in greatness, some conjecture that part of this simple personality has to do with her origins as a child born in Waterhouse, a violent suburb of Kingston in whose streets she wept, as a child, for the death of one of her beloved cousins in a gang clash.

Perhaps this mix of naturalness and the search for excellence had to do with that adolescence in which she confronted her hopes as an athlete with any task with which she could lend a hand to the needs of her mother and, incidentally, guarantee lunch at school.

Every time her compatriot Usain Bolt says that, for 10 seconds of the show, there are many years of sacrifice, hardship and frustration, it is legitimate to think of Fraser-Pryce.

Anyway, it’s whimsical to believe that there is some specific reason for someone to become the best of their kind for almost a decade and a half. Shelly Ann turned an urban talent into the lady capable of earning the antipathy of many compatriots for having become the executioner of Veronica Campbell-Brown, another of those legends with the distinctive Jamaican stamp.

She, Campbell-Brown, was the first big sign that we were dealing with someone extraordinary. But between 2008 and today, Fraser-Pryce won eight Olympic medals -three gold- and 13 world titles, including 10 individual and on-the-post titles. More than that. On the way to such glory, she overcame every kind of sporting threat. Carmelita Jetter, Dafne Schippers, Kerron Stewart, Tori Bowie, Dina Asher-Smith, Murielle Ahoure, Blessing Okagbare... until recently displacing Elaine Thompson-Herah from a throne that already seemed distant for our heroine.

Between 2008 and 2022, Shelly Ann only had a moment when the world of athletics seemed like it, if not forget about it, at least look skeptically at her possibilities of returning to the fore. It was in 2017 - she did not participate in the London World Cup - and the reason was probably the most powerful that could exist.

Also in London, but at the first Olympic Games after World War II, many analysts considered it unlikely that a Dutch lady, mother of two children and three months pregnant, would even be able to compete in such a tournament. Fanny Blankers-Koen, not only competed, but she achieved the unparalleled record of four gold medals in a single game.

It was precisely motherhood that marginalized Shelly Ann from the tracks. “Beyond my desire to become a mother, my body was in need of a break from so much effort in athletic preparation,” she explained on the way to a return that would undoubtedly be full of glory.

Beyond her sporting prowess, the Jamaican star was another voice that stood up to support the complaint made by Allyson Felix regarding the sponsoring companies that decided to lower their contract by 70 percent, precisely because she was pregnant.

Owner of a foundation that tries to help many boys and girls like her to attend the different levels of school education normally, what blushes and excites her most to promote about her personal things is to own a “hair beauty center” in Kingston.

Proud to use her talents to support noble causes, she completes her honor roll as a UNICEF ambassador and a constant crier in favor of breastfeeding and the improvement of delivery conditions in her country of origin.

In times of crisis for Jamaican male speed - How to find a sign behind the imprint left by the enormous Usain? -, Mama Shelly-Ann returned to the world championships in Doha, with her last two golds... so far.

With Paris 2024 in the spotlight and a stopover in Budapest 2023, Pocket Rocket —her favorite nickname, which is, at the same time, the name of her foundation- threatens to break all current parameters, regardless of the age that appears on her passport.

How can we not give credit to her... the girl who laughs and wins?