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Shelly-Ann Fraser, world champion sprinter, out to make a better world
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From left: Shelly-Ann Fraser, Usain Bolt and Melaine Walker. (AP Photo/Collin Reid)
Since winning the IAAF World Championships in Berlin this past August, Shelly-Ann Fraser is still up at 4.30am to slave through coach Stephen Francis's murderous training sessions before studying at college for her child care and development degree and then jetting back to the track again or heading to the weight room.
Training hard has paid off for Shelly-Ann Fraser, the unsung Jamaican heroine who outblasted Carmelita Jeter at the World Championships. With her hard won success, Ms. Fraser has many goals to improve the quality of life for women and girls in Jamaica. Ms. Fraser says,
"Now it's Jamaican women and children who are my inspiration. I see a lot of things they go through as single parents at 16, having a child which keeps them in the same economic situation as their parents...I try to be an example for them, (show) them that they can still succeed. I can try to talk to them; finish high school, don't get pregnant at a young age, don't be hanging out on the streets. Just do your schoolwork, focus on a sport if you're good at it, do what I did."
She sounds almost evangelical as she outlines her plans; set up a foundation to aid under-privileged kids; to build a community center in Waterhouse, her home town; to get Jamaicans to toss away guns and ensure the island becomes a woman's, as well as a man's, world; to become a child psychologist to help develop "more people in the world with better values and better morals."
Shelly-Ann joins the likes of Ryan and Sara Hall and Muna Lee in their efforts to spread the umbrella of their success.
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