After giving birth to her son in 2017, Mrs Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, among the greats of track athletics’ storied history, watched on television as Jamaica had an underwhelming World Athletics Championship in London.

As he had indicated prior, the living legend of men’s track athletics, Mr Usain Bolt, retired from competition right after London where he won a bronze medal.

Asked by this newspaper at the time if she was contemplating following Mr Bolt’s footsteps, especially since she was a mother at 30, Mrs Fraser-Pryce decisively dismissed the thought.

Her time to walk away had not yet come, she said. But when it came she would know.

Now 37 years old, we hear she will retire after this summer’s Paris Olympics.

Her growing son and husband must now take priority, Mrs Fraser-Pryce told United States magazine Essence.

She is focused on training for one last chance at Olympic glory in France. She is about “pushing boundaries” as well as “showing people that you stop when you decide”.

She is on the brink of retirement but, according to her, “There’s not a day I’m getting up to go practice and I’m like, ‘I’m over this’…”

Mental strength, twinned to enormous talent, has been central to Mrs Fraser-Pryce’s growth from impoverished circumstances in Waterhouse, St Andrew, to extraordinary success and longevity in sport.

Obviously gifted but never a star at high schools’ athletics championships, Mrs Fraser-Pryce found her groove when she joined the great Mr Stephen Francis’s MVP Track and Field Club on entering University of Technology, Jamaica.

Many were shocked when she placed second in the 100 metres at the national trials prior to Beijing 2008, pushing the iconic Mrs Veronica Campbell-Brown into fourth place and out of automatic selection for the Olympic short sprint.

Calls came for the youthful, inexperienced athlete to be replaced by Mrs Campbell-Brown in the individual event. But to their eternal credit, track and field administrators stood by their rules.

Rather than being disheartened by negative utterances, Mrs Fraser-Pryce later said she was motivated. Spurred by her breathtakingly fast start Mrs Fraser-Pryce won the Beijing 100 metre final in a stunning personal best 10.78 seconds. Compatriots Ms Kerron Stewart and Ms Sherone Simpson tied for the silver medal in a memorable Jamaican sweep.

That Olympic 100-metre gold — the first for a Caribbean woman — came alongside Mr Bolt’s world record gold medal run in the men’s equivalent.

Since then, Mrs Fraser-Pryce has consistently dominated 100-metre sprints — in more recent years alongside compatriot, the equally strong-minded Mrs Elaine Thompson-Herah.

Our Sports Desk tells us that Mrs Fraser-Pryce has “won eight Olympic medals, including 100-metre gold, 2008 in Beijing and 2012 in London, and a Tokyo Olympic title as part of Jamaica’s 4×100 relay.

“Her medal haul also includes silver at 100m in Tokyo and 200m in London, plus a 2016 Rio 100m bronze.

“She won 100m world titles in 2009, 2013, 2015, 2019 and 2022 plus a 200 world crown in 2013 and 4×100 relay golds in 2009, 2013, 2015 and 2019”.

She may now be 37 but don’t expect Mrs Fraser-Pryce to merely participate in Paris.

We can be absolutely certain that if she misses out on the podium, it won’t be for want of trying.

Mrs Fraser-Pryce’s story and example should be an inspiration for us all.