Shelly-Anny Fraser Pryce landed on the map at her first appearance in the mega-quadrennial games in the 2004 Athens Olympics. Since Athens Shelly-Ann Fraser has competed in 5 Olympics with a total of 8 Olympics medal. Shelly-Ann is formidable at 34 years old and is one of the fastest women in the world.
Diet
Since dominating track and field, Jamaican athletes have been under the microscope. Many people have been trying to figure out what the secret to the Jamaicans speed.
In 2008 Usain Bolt revealed that yams 🍠 were an essential part of his diet. However, Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce does not like yams and stressed that she eats a lot of “tun cornmeal, dumplings and porridge.”
In her conversation with Forbes, Shelly-Ann spoke about her diet “I’m still eating turned corn meal to this day because my husband makes it; he will put chicken in it, he will put everything in it; it makes me feel full, which does wonders for me with how hard I train. I’m not very strict about my diet,” Shelly-Ann said.
Shelly continue to say “I am not a yam girl at all. I don’t really like yam. I will eat it but I am more about dumplings and rice… and porridge. I drink a lot of porridge.”
Shelly-Ann further states that she does not follow any diet and is not strict with what she eats. She has to travel the world and even though her coach suggests she follows a strict diet, she eats whatever she wants. Includes:
- Pasta
- Rice
- Dumplings
- Banana
- Yams 🍠 (sometimes – if forced to do so)
Shelly-Ann’s Favorite Meals 🥘
Ackee and Saltfish with fried dumplings as well as rice and butter beans. She also states that she can eat chicken everyday.
If Not Diet Then What Is The Secret To Her Success?
Shelly-Ann trains hard! You can find her training before 4:30am. She ran a lot as a child.
Early Life
Growing up she had no knowledge that she was poor until she started attending high school. Her mother was a street vendor and they lived in a tenement yard in Waterhouse, infamous ghetto.
She would run to the corner store when her mother sent her out. Many times on her run to the shop she had a grocery list and no money. She would wait for everyone to leave the shop before extending previous trust arrangements, without the shop keeper’s generosity they wouldn’t have anything to eat.
As fellow students at the Wolmers High School would bring lunch to school, Shelly had to sign up for the free breakfast program, something she was embarrassed about.
Mentorship
Shelly-Ann signed up for track and field at her high school and attracted a mentor, Jeanne Coke a former student of the high school. Ms. Coke began to fund Shelly-Ann‘s school needs; books, uniforms, education and of course meals.
Happy to escape poverty Ms. Pryce started her Pocket Rocket Foundation 🚀. Launched in 2012, her foundation helps students who needs financial support, academic support as well as athletic support.
“There are so many student athletes who are going through what I did when I was growing up. I want to make sure that they don’t have to experience what I did. I want them to be able to balance being an athlete with academics.” She said.
