Young athletes get earful of advice from Jamaican Track and Field star

The hundreds of young Vincentian athletes who were part of the empowerment session with Jamaican Track Star Shelly Ann Fraser-Pryce on Thursday, April 9, 2026, at the Diamond Track Facility, left the venue buoyed with much advice and encouragement.

Fraser- Pryce, a global icon in Athletics having won multiple Olympic, World Championships and Diamond League medals, offered pointers to those within the range of her voice at the sports facility.

She thus told her audience to be go- getters.

“So, every morning, when you get up and you’re going to training, or in the evening- depending on the time of the day, you train, you have to want it. Your mother can’t want it for you. Father can’t want it for you. Your friends can’t want it for you. You have to want it for yourself, and you have to be willing to do more work than the next person to get it,” Fraser- Pryce advised.

Citing some of her personal experiences, Fraser- Pryce told the athletes “One of the things that as I got older in track, I recognize that for me, I wish I advocated for myself more. You are at the age, the stage where I’m asking you to advocate for what you want. Don’t let anyone tell you that you cannot. Don’t let anyone tell you that you’re too young. Don’t let anyone tell you that.”

Speaking directly to the absence of top level and ultra-modern training facilities, Fraser- Pryce that should not be an excuse for not putting in the hard work, noting “The reality is we’re or not going to have the world’s best resources”.

Looking at the wider Caribbean and its collective shortcomings the Jamaican athletic star pointed out: “We are from a region that produces diamonds. We are from the region that produce athletes that are world beaters.

When I started, I had one suit. My mother was poor. I didn’t believe I could make it and here I am today.”

Fraser- Pryce was here in St Vincent and the Grenadines on a five- day visit, realized through a joint venture with locally based Awesome Sports Entertainment and her Pocket Rocket Foundation.