'I’ve been privileged to be tough'-Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on having grit & impacting her community

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce

'I’ve been privileged to be tough'-Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on having grit & impacting her community

Abigael Wafula 15:33 - 25.12.2024

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce credits her resilience and success to her tough upbringing, using her experiences to inspire and support her community through her foundation and initiatives.

Jamaican legendary sprinter Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has so many admirable qualities that have left fans wondering how she manages to balance it all.

She decided to give a hint of where all her hard work, resilience and work ethic come from and it has to do with where she grew up.

The multiple world champion revealed that growing up, she had to fight to be recognised and admitted that she had to work hard for everything she earned.

Shelly-Ann disclosed that it was not an all rosy affair but look at where all those challenges led her, to become one of the most inspirational personalities not only in Jamaica but the whole world.

The sprint queen revealed that it is from the hardships that she believed in the notion of giving everyone a chance when she has the ability.

She pointed out that her foundation, Pocket Rocket, is all about inspiring people to go for what they believe in and make everyone feel seen and loved.

“Growing up in Waterhouse, I’ve been privileged to be tough, have grit and perseverance. What I’ve also learnt is a lot of us just need a chance. We need the platform, we need the help and we need persons to believe in us,” Shelly-Ann said as per Jamaica Observer.

“For me, that’s always what I want to bring to the community believing that there are individuals here that just need a chance. So, I’m looking forward to just growing with the community and helping to produce more individuals from this competition.”

She launched a tournament to ensure there is inclusivity and she plans to go far and wide to reach as many talented players as possible.

Shelly-Ann added that there have been great improvements and noted that togetherness is what will make all the teams flourish. Just like on the track, when athletes are running, that’s the only time they will be serious and treat each other as ‘enemies.’

However, once the race is over, they become friends again and continue with life like nothing major happened and that’s what she wants to take to her football tournament.

“We’ve always had, for the last nine editions, teams coming together and having discipline, following rules and learning to coexist with each other and understanding when it comes to football, we play it on the field and whatever happens on the field, stays on the field,” she said.

“We’ve had friendships, we’ve had players changing teams and corporate merging with the community which speaks a lot to what we have here.

“It’s something we can explore but it’s the time frame. I don’t have a lot of time with everything that’s happening in this particular period.”

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