'Mommy Rocket' ready for liftoff

Sprint veteran Fraser-Pryce chasing history in intriguing Tokyo track-and-field program

Every time Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce steps on the track, some sort of record is in jeopardy.

At the top of that list, of course, is Florence Griffith Joyner's 33-year-old mark in the 100 meters.

At the upcoming Olympics, Fraser-Pryce, the 34-year-old mother from Jamaica, could also become the oldest person to win an individual Olympic sprint. And, she could become the first woman to win three 100m gold medals at the Games.

Not bad for an athlete who feared her career was over four years ago when she became pregnant, but who returned to win a world championship title in 2019.

"Commitment is everything－today's failure prepares you for tomorrow's success," Fraser-Pryce tweeted recently. "There's no failure in progress, so keep going and push through."

Where the world used to look to another Jamaican, Usain Bolt, to rewrite history at the Olympics, Bolt's retirement turns the spotlight over to Fraser-Pryce, who is now the most-accomplished active 100m sprinter in the world. The chances for the "Pocket Rocket," who now calls herself the "Mommy Rocket", to put her name in the history books starts July 30 in Tokyo.

Those chances increased dramatically earlier this month when the runner considered her main threat, American Sha'Carri Richardson, was banned for a positive test for marijuana.

Even without Richardson in the race, the sprints still have star power. Dina Asher-Smith, the British speedster who won 200m gold and 100m silver at the 2019 worlds, will be in the lineup, along with Shericka Jackson of Jamaica, who is now on the shortlist of women to run sub-11 seconds in the 100, sub-22 in the 200 and sub-50 in the 400.

And then there's defending Olympic champion Elaine Thompson Herah, the 29-year-old from Jamaica who in Rio recorded the first women's 100-200 sweep since FloJo in 1988. She qualified for both races this time too.

Fraser-Pryce will also be a factor in the 200, which she also won at Jamaica's recent Olympic qualifier; she has a 2012 Olympic silver medal at that distance as well. That race is also expected to include Asher-Smith; Shaunae Miller-Uibo of the Bahamas, who, because of the Olympic schedule, has to choose between the 200 and 400, and has indicated she wants the 200; and American Gabby Thomas, who ran 21.61 at Olympic trials to become the second-fastest woman in history at the distance, behind only Griffith Joyner.

"Now I'm just going to have to map out a different trajectory for my life," Thomas said.

On June 5, it was Fraser-Pryce who became the second-fastest woman in history in the 100－h(huán)er time of 10.63 declared to the world that she was, indeed, ready for the push to Tokyo.

"Honestly no… I never expected I would run 10.6 and think it's a good thing because there was no pressure," Fraser-Pryce said when she posted the time.