SOUTH FLORIDA – There is a newspaper clipping in my office with a headline with Shelly-Ann Frazer Pryce offering the opinion she is not as acclaimed as she ought to be.
Well, after Sunday, there is little choice.
Sunday evening Shelly-Ann made the BBC World News, not the sports news, the world news.
But this young lady is much more than deserving of adequate praise and commendation. In an era in which many Jamaican women have decided to use supposed dancehall culture and events to make money in ways which can only be described as demeaning.
Here is a young woman from the same exact neighborhood as some of the abovementioned women, taking a set of calculated decisions; she becomes a wife, then a mother, then returns to athletic competition and at thirty-three years old performs as if she is still in her early twenties.
I want to submit this is not merely athleticism, but someone in possession of a brave heart which simply does not give up.
Shelly-Ann is not only a reminder of what the original motives behind athletic competition was all about, said same brave heart that brings the body into the discipline St. Paul speaks about in the Bible.
Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce is in addition to all the above, a reminder to all Jamaican women that they really are more powerful than most Jamaican men.
Like with the Reggae Girlz, Shelly Ann Fraser Pryce is that shining and illuminating light that either prompts you to do your ultimate best.
Or it reminds you that a sentiment known as shame still exists.
Voice your opinion on the “Open Line” with Winston Barnes daily on WAVS 1170AM or listen on-line
