SAINT-DENIS, France — Jamaican star Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was scratched from the women’s 100 meters just before her semifinal race.
Fraser-Pryce, 37, was not among the women on the track in the second semifinal heat. She was supposed to run in lane five.
Online, there was chatter that both Fraser-Pryce and American Sha’Carri Richardson had initially been denied access to the warm-up area. In a video posted on social media, Fraser-Pryce appears to be explaining to someone why she’s being denied access to the warm-up area. It’s not clear when the video was shot.
‘She said they changed the rule yesterday,’ Fraser-Pryce says in the video. ‘How you going to change the rule and then not say? So you’re asking all the athletes who, for whatever reason, don’t stay in the (athlete) village, they can’t come through the gate? We came through this gate yesterday and went through security and it was OK. They want us to go all the way up to where everybody is exiting … that’s crazy!’
Jamaican teammate Tia Clayton was asked about Fraser-Pryce’s scratch after Clayton’s semifinal run. “That’s pretty surprising to me. I don’t know what happened,’ Clayton said.
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Asked about the warmup access, Clayton said “I heard that also, but I really don’t know what happened.”
Richardson finished second in her heat and advanced to the finals. She is the gold medal favorite.
The 100 was going to be Fraser-Pryce’s only individual event at the 2024 Paris Games, as she did not qualify in the 200. (She won silver in the 200 at the 2012 London Olympics.) She is likely to still run in the 4×100 relay, where the Jamaicans are the defending gold medalists.
Fraser-Pryce’s remarkable Olympic resume began in 2008 when she made Jamaican Olympic history by becoming the first athlete from her country to win the 100. She’s won Olympic medals in Beijing, London, Rio de Janeiro and Tokyo and has eight overall.
In the final later Saturday night, Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred won gold in 10.72 seconds, followed by Richardson in 10.87 for silver. American Melissa Jefferson took the bronze in 10.92. Jamaica’s Clayton was seventh.
