A champion is a champion... 'Mentally stronger' Frazer-Pryce zooms in on more success

André Lowe, Senior Staff Reporter

Jamaica's little sprint darling, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has brushed aside the challenges she endured last year and is ready to prove once again that she is among the best athletes on the planet.

In fact, the diminutive 24-year-old is facing the season with renewed determination and heightened confidence.

At the height of the international sprinting world after the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing, China, and again a year later at the IAAF World Championships in Athletics in Berlin, Germany, where she won gold medals in the 100m, Fraser-Pryce was then forced to experience one of the darkest moments in her still-young professional career, when she was slapped with a six-month ban after testing positive for a non-performance enhancing substance.

It's an experience that she has learnt from and one that has given her extra impetus this season; not that she wanted much considering that the IAAF World Championships in Athletics, Daegu is now a matter of weeks away.

"Mentally, I am stronger and tougher than I was before mainly because of the challenges that I managed to overcome last year and the injuries that I have been having," said Fraser-Pryce, in reference to a niggling back injury that has been bothering her for a while.

"At the end of the day, my hard work, perseverance and determination will definitely show. I am always hungry to compete, hungry to win and hungry to prove that I am the best athlete out there, so I am determined to go out there and show the world that I am among the best in the world," Fraser-Pryce added.

"I know that I have to be ready on the day, and I always try to psych myself up and tell myself that others may say I am the underdog, but I know that I am a champion and a champion will always be a champion," she continued.

The MVP track club star is getting ready to face some other heavy-hitters such as Allyson Felix, Carmelita Jeter and Sherone Simpson in the 200m at the Adidas Grand Prix in New York on June 11 and while she accepts that her troubles last year has created a few doubts around her, she prefers to focus on more positive things.

"I must say it really was a devastating time for me, but I think persons who already had doubts or were already saying that I am not a good athlete will continue to say that regardless of what happens," Fraser-Pryce reasoned. "That's their own thinking and perception, but at the end of the day I want to prove something to myself and not to anyone else.

"I have started to focus on me because if I focus on what others say or what others think then I am going to put a lot of pressure on myself, and so this year I have a different outlook," she reasoned. "I want to have fun, run some really great races and at the end of the day I believe that will speak for itself."

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