Olympic Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Is Officially the Fastest Woman Alive

She's on track to break some serious Olympic records.

Congratulations, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce!

The Jamaican runner just cinched a huge title: fastest living women in the world. According to NBC Sports, the two-time Olympic gold medalist had the fastest 100m run in 33 years on January 5. This also makes her the second-fastest woman of all time.

Fraser-Pryce, who also won the 2019 World title, clocked a 10.63 second 100m at a meet in Kingston. According to the publication, this is the fourth-best time in history. “I’m at a loss for words because 10.6 has been a dream, a goal,” she said

The next big stop for the runner? The 2021 Tokyo Olympics, where she hopes to become the first woman in history to win one individual Olympic track and field event three times. If she succeeds, Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce will also be the oldest woman to win an individual Olympic sprint title at 34 years old.

You may be wondering how Fraser-Pryce holds the title of the second-fastest woman of all time if she holds the fourth-best time. Well, that's because the first three all belong to the same woman: Florence Griffith Joyner, the fastest woman of all time. 

Joyner, who was often referred to as Flo-Jo, is an American track star who set the world record in 1988 for both the 100- and 200-meter dashes. She died in 1998, but remains a major inspiration to so many women, including another certified G.O.A.T: Serena Williams

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The tennis legend paid tribute to Flo-Jo at the 2021 Australian Open by wearing a version of the runner's signature one-legged cat suits during a match on February 7. “I was inspired by Flo-Jo, who was a wonderful track athlete, amazing athlete when I was growing up,” Williams said in a postmatch interview. “Watching her fashion just always changing, her outfits were always amazing. This year we thought of, ‘What can we do to keep elevating Serena Williams on the court?’ The Nike team actually thought of this design of inspiration from Flo-Jo. I was like, ‘Oh my God, this is so brilliant.’”

On June 3, it was announced that Tiffany Haddish will portray Joyner in a new biopic. “I am looking forward to telling Flo-Jo’s story the way it should be told,” said Haddish in a statement, per The Hollywood Reporter. “My goal with this film is making sure that younger generations know my ‘she-ro’ Flo-Jo, the fastest woman in the world to this day, existed.”


This story originally appeared on: Glamour - Author:Emily Tannenbaum

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