Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Sha’Carri Richardson, two of the biggest names in women’s sprinting, faced an unexpected challenge before even stepping onto the track at the Paris Olympics on Saturday (3 Aug).
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The sprinters were temporarily blocked from entering the warm-up area at the Stade de France due to a mix-up with security protocols.
The incident, captured on video and widely shared on social media, showed Fraser-Pryce and Richardson waiting outside the gate, unable to gain access to the facility. The confusion arose because the athletes arrived at the stadium in private vehicles rather than the team shuttle provided by the organizers, which led to their initial denial of entry.
Fraser-Pryce, who is not staying in the athletes’ village, had to find her own way to and from the stadium. In a circulating video, she voiced her frustration over the sudden rule change.
“She said they changed the rule yesterday. How can you change the rule and then not say? So, they’re asking all the athletes who, for whatever reason, don’t stay in the village, they can’t come through the gate?” Fraser-Pryce remarked.
“We came through this gate yesterday and went through security and were okay. The man said we have to go all the way up where everybody else is entering to come back down here. That’s crazy,” she added.
Both athletes were eventually allowed into the venue, but Fraser-Pryce strained her hamstring during warm-ups. It is unclear if this situation contributed to her injury.
However, several prominent voices are criticizing the organizers and blaming them for what happened to the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 champion.
Jamaica’s team manager, Ludlow Watts, addressed the athlete’s withdrawal. “When we got the news about half an hour earlier, she was warming up, and so it came as a surprise to me,” said Watts to the Jamaica Observer.
“We only got the information that she is injured, but Dr. Warren Blake is addressing the matter, and we will speak further on the matter,” he said.
St. Lucian Julien Alfred went on to win the final in 10.82 seconds, ahead of Sha’Carri Richardson, who finished in 10.87. This marks the first time since 1980 that Jamaica did not win a medal in the women’s 100m.
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Leave it to Oh So Manny Micron and the Frogs to “run” a shambolic Olympics. Shelly Ann was robbed by French bureaucratic idiocy.
I really have no time for Western politicians and the bureaucrats who run them and Ill insult them all day long as to gender, lack of merit for job, lying about everything, and then having the temerity to overtax us all, not provide services and send wacka doodlr soldiers off to colonize Africa and threaten the Global South. Idiots one and all, but Froggos take the cake as per Marie Antoinette. Meanwhile, Biden doesn’t even know what day it is! Christ Jesus on a cross, what in hell is going on?
Cannot even run a sports show — France,supposed world power 2024. Couldn’t run a convenience store without a rule book 300 pages long.
I want my Shelly Ann! You cheese-eating surrender monkey frogs can all go to hell.