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30 Responses to “ALL HAIL QUEEN SHELLY-ANN”

1. DonManJ says:

   August 14, 2013 at 10:55 am

   Like Usain, Shelly is the Sprint Queen of the world. Always consistent, always delivers and always speedier as the rounds progress. Which leads me to a few puzzling questions. What is it about Shelly that sets her apart from her Jamaican competitors? Why is it that her MVP clubmates are unable to emulate her, Calvert and Carrie Russell for example. Why is it that Francis can pull out the ultimate from Shelly but not from Russell and Calvert? Besides Shelly and VCB, why is there no other females in the immediate future to take over? While the men’s side of the success equation is bountifully stacked the same cannot be said about the female side. Infact, I believe its woefully imbalanced.
2. SunnySideUp says:

   August 14, 2013 at 2:29 pm

   I concur DonManJ. This has been my concern since Daegu 2011 – where are the next top tier female Jamaican track stars? The odds are woefully stacked against in that area as even the Class One Champs athlete are not as impressive as we would desire. In fact the lack of medals or even presence in 100m female finals at the recent World Youth Games speaks volumes! I hope our first rate coaches can nurture another Shelly-Ann to the top but until then I am basking in the pride that this Pocket Rocket has brought to us and anticipating the joy of the 200m finals. Shell dem Shelly!!! Total annihilation!
3. lorenzo bartlett says:

   August 15, 2013 at 1:30 am

   People we should not be concern about the reason for a lack of female athletes, because we know the answer to that. Most Jamaican mothers don’t want their daughters to participate in sports, especially when they have to wear the bikini like shorts, lift weights.
   One can go far back as when a several Jamaican female athletes went overseas on track scholarships, and started to dress like the American girls wearing modern sport apparels, instead of the bloomers shorts (skirt with short underneath “Lolita style dress code” comic book).
   Many parents were calling Jesus off the Cross, seeing their daughters wearing the modern female sports apparel as too revealing and don’t want their girls to dress like that. So most of Jamaica females athletes are in the church. We all know that, so to get these girls to participate in track and field in Jamaica, these mothers have to change their mindset and let their daughter develop mentally, physically and spiritually without such hindrance of ignorance base solely on Christianity.
   I knew a girl when I was in High school, she was the fastest female in the school and possible in the whole parish, but her Adventist parents said she cannot continue to participate in track and field, because it is interfering with her religion. It means no training on Fridays or Saturdays. That is the end of that girls athletic career.
   Most female parents want glory for their daughters, but they don’t want to let go, maybe because of lack of self esteem issues and not solely religion or Christianity.
   Jamaican churches are stacked with about 8o percent of the female population. And the females that don’t follow the rules of Bible Thumping are consider and outcast or black-sheep in the family. When some of these girls defies their parents religious purgatory and become famous, they show-up like they have something to do with such development.
   So there is your answer to the perplexing question.
   I can bet anyone that if tomorrow morning JAA conduct a track on field selection for female athletes with no hold bars from the Christian mother to release their daughters from religious purgatory, and in three years you will see so many female stars. It would make one wonder where those athletes were hiding. Need Not I Say More, In The Church, People.!!!!!!
4. rudyx says:

   August 15, 2013 at 6:30 am

   Let us not be too quick to worry about our females.
   You will recall that during the 80s and 90s it was our females who kept our flags flying. Merlene Grace Jackson,Juliet Cuthbert etc.
   I think it is just a cycle and our coaches just need to work hard at developing the next crop of female champions
5. dallo says:

   August 15, 2013 at 9:04 am

   Ha…Mr. Barlett, your points are interesting and before reading this i would never have considered this angle you just spoke on.

   In spite of this, we’ll still produce quality female athletes down the road, keeping in mind that these things run in cycles.
6. JDonman says:

   August 15, 2013 at 1:21 pm

   @dallo, we don’t have to get in that mind set that “things run in cycles”. It does not have to be so. Even the current crop of class 1 sprint girls are barely competitive at the carifta level much less at the World youth and Juniors. At the World Youth only the fabulous Yanique Thompson took home 1 gold for the girls, the rest were all from the boys. I think that if there were more top tier female coaches then more resources would be allocated to developing strong junior female sprinters.
7. levyl says:

   August 15, 2013 at 2:14 pm

   You are all forgetting that often the development of the athlete does not occur until after their high school careers?
8. Lois Robertson-Douglass says:

   August 15, 2013 at 2:18 pm

   Resubmitted because of typos!!!
   Rubbish, Mr. Bartlett! Not enough emphasis is placed on women in any field of endeavour! Like athletics, most board rooms are stacked with men. Women are usually not given the kinds of opportunities afford to some of the most worthless men. Take for instance the pictures in the newspapers…mostly male athletes. The endorsements that Usain gets, bet you Shelly isn’t even close. I ran track in high school and was damned good; however, when I went to the US for school, I had no track scholarship, and interestingly, in the 70s, even in “God’s country” women’s athletics were by and large unknown. It wasn’t until Congress passed an equal-gender law, ( Title number, I have forgot), that women’s track and field took off. Even my puritanical mother said nothing when I donned my shorts for track events. Be a little more analytic about what you write!
9. lorenzo bartlett says:

   August 15, 2013 at 9:41 pm

   Points well taken, I do understand that track and field is cyclical in nature. All I am saying is that I would want parents to let up on the religious purgatory that is hindering the development of more female athletes. Even my brother is so protective of his daughters it is a shame. He doesn’t even let them play netball after school. I had to tell him sometime he has to release the reigns, and let the girls explore their own possibilities in life. He would come up with all kind of scenario why they should be home early.
   In high school your potential start to show, and then you get recognized, after that it is up to you to go for it whether you’re a boy or a girl.
10. sgordon says:

    August 16, 2013 at 4:49 am

    Shellyann will get the 200m title, once she gets off the curb first and maintains her speed. She wants the 200m title more than the others.This girl is greedy.
11. sgordon says:

    August 16, 2013 at 5:06 am

    Lorenzo, I understand what you are saying about the church thing,however, what about the few who are currently performing. I was expecting Carrie Russel to do great things, but it has not materialized,their is Calvert and others they start off well and stop in their track.
    Is it that Shellyann is more hungry for success than them, or is it that the coaches not paying enough attention to them? I know some of them train abroad and Michael J was saying that the athletes are over worked on collegiate circuit in America.Our athletes have done a lot better since training at home. By now jamaica should have a A and a B team for both men and women in the relay sprint.
12. dallo says:

    August 16, 2013 at 8:10 am

    Btw, this protectiveness of daughters(and i understand it), in my view explains why rural schools dominate girls t & f, while in the corporate area, boys school excel.

    It has to do with recruiting i feel, as whereas parents will allow their boys to off to Kingston, they ain’t sending their girls.
13. lorenzo bartlett says:

    August 16, 2013 at 6:18 pm

    Mr. Gordon, Shelly-Ann is not greedy, she is a true competitor, with the heart of a champion. Base on her interviews she is always giving credit to her coach and coaching staffs, as well as her work ethics. Such attitude demonstrate that she is teachable, with a willingness to learn and that is the reason why she is so successful. However, there is a school of thought out there that says “when the student is ready the teacher will appear.” (I call her “Lightening Flash” the Little One from Krypton the nation where men and women travel at Nano-Speed). So the answer to your questions why those other female athletes in not enjoying great success is all about their work ethic.

    In regards to Carrie, Brooks, Bailey, Hall, Calvert and others it boils down to their work ethics. I don’t know if you recall and article in the Gleaner from VCB’s Ex-Jamaican Coach who states that VCB needs to lose weight in order to be more dominant in the sprints, and the same sentiment was echo by her former former U.S. coach that she quit and went back to her Arkansas Coach. So if the attitude is not there, no coaching will work, and that is the problem with many of the female athletes. Stephen Francis echo the same sentiment about the work ethics of some of the MVP female athletes, at which time he said he cant force them to do the work, he said that about Powell too in a June article. I like Mr. Francis, he does not mince words, he is so direct.
    Dallo, the girls from rural schools dominate track and field, because the playing field are right there in their backyards, so they get to train with the boys, many have brothers training at the same time and parents are comfortable with that. As soon as the boys potential outgrow their competition at the rural level, Kingston or St. Catherine is the next stop, because they have a system in place to get boys to the next level of national exposure.
    Lois, I believe you miss the point. We are not talking about endorsement, sponsorship or meet money. Shelly-Ann will be getting more for attending taking part in a meet going forward, because her stock has risen exponentially. Women were participating in sports for ages, U.S. track star Rudolph, in tennis althea Gibson and the list can go on and on. Title IX was created to give female athletes more recognition, and better pay on the professional level. If you can recall when the Williams Sisters raised the issue for equal pay as the men when winning Wimbledon, and it raises a lot of issues. What we are talking about Lois is more participation from female athletes, and so we were highlighting some of the mere causes. Also, Lois I represent my school at twice at Eastern Champs in 800m and 1500m,my track career faltered because I did not have a good work ethics, and my mom did not want me to go to Kingston to work with “Foggy” Borrows. As result, I decided to do cycling. I was good but not great, I still do cycling. If you want to race me on a bicycle that fine with me. lol …
    There you have it Hot off the press!!!!!
14. sgordon says:

    August 19, 2013 at 4:46 pm

    Mr. Lorenzo, I did not mean Shelly is greedy in a bad way. I meant she is hungry for success, and that is a good thing. I would have been disapointed if she did not win the 200m as well.
    I am very proud of the young woman.
    Mrs Gordon.
15. Darien says:

    August 20, 2013 at 3:28 pm

    We should be ecstatic over the achievements of Pocket Rocket, Usain and the rest of the team and not waste our time quibbling about what is coming next. Jamaica has consistently been in the top tier as a great producer of world class sprint athletes, male or female. Undoubtedly the best on a per capita basis.
    Not to worry more great female sprinters will emerge soon. It is intrinsically in the Jamaican DNA
16. J. Dear says:

    August 21, 2013 at 3:15 pm

    Regarding the bikini type outfits of the female athletes worldwide. Is there a reason for this as far as speed/prowess is concerned? (The men wear longer shorts and t-shirts and they are still fast). In this age of female liberation, are the women athletes being dressed as erotic objects and, as they are young, they don’t realise the broader implications and just accept this because of fashion? I’m by no means a prude, but I have wondered about this.
17. JDonman says:

    August 22, 2013 at 11:05 am

    If development of athletes comes afetr high school then why haven’t we seen one such case since Shelly Ann? VCB was a world star during high school. To say that sprinting is in our DNA is misleading and not entirely correct.
18. Milan 2002 says:

    August 22, 2013 at 2:56 pm

    Shelly Ann I advise you to stay away from politics… Think Lisa Hanna. You are simply world class. Full stop
19. V Hutchinson says:

    August 22, 2013 at 3:02 pm

    Heartiest congratulations. I was overcome with joy. Still hoarse. I was even so more proud listening to the most articulate person on the track and field team.
20. dallo says:

    August 23, 2013 at 9:47 am

    @JDonman, trust me, if there’s nothing else in our DNA, sprinting is. It would take a torturous amount of arguing to prove otherwise and still think you’ld come up short.

    The bikini thing is packaging, no doubt. Sex or sexiness is a thing and sells well all over. From observation, it would appear that there’s some lattitude in how far ones wanna go with the skimpiness.
21. Vincent Francis says:

    August 23, 2013 at 9:52 am

    Shelly – Ann has consistently expressed and demonstrated the source of her succes on the track each time she is interviewed by the media (local or foreign).In a nutshell she always seemed to attribute her success to:1. Her genuine personal faith in God. 2. Her God-given sprint talent. Her deep authentic insight of whom she really is, this authentic assessment of self gives her the tremendous strength required to be humble and to remain humble (many people believe humilty is a negative spineless weakness that is corrosive for successful human beings and therefore should be avoided. The truth is this: only the strong can maintain genuine humility in the midst of fame.Shelly-Ann’s understanding of “who am I” is also demonstrated by her readiness to share with the world from her inner reservoir of priceless smiles. 4.Her personal disciplined mind which drives her to listen to her coach and execute the way he instructs her. 5.Her personal philosophy of immediately- as she becomes aware of it – rejecting and cancelling any thought of having outgrown her coach’s instructions which may happen to enter her mind. Those who are asking why need to read and reflect on each of these five long and hard until they are well understood, because they are easier said than done. This package is called personal self-management. This is what under God has put Shelly-Ann ahead of the field on the tract.
22. lorenzo bartlett says:

    August 23, 2013 at 4:41 pm

    JDonman and Dallo you are both correct. I read a book from the resources page of one of Marcus Garvey’s book, which make sense to me. It talks about the migration of the black emissaries of the Roman, Egyptian and the Old Ghana empire during the Silk Trade with China. These black emissaries were special and very important to the empire because of their foot speed in carrying and delivering message to different tribes and emperors. After the fall of these empires these men and women settled
    on the coastline near Nigeria. These men were
    dupe by the high priest of Nigeria to get on the slave ships unchained to be of service to foreign countries.
    When they get to America they say men other African men in chains, and they fled in to Jungle of America using their skill of camouflage to outwit the white men, and then they joined the Indians who they trained to run, and they passed on their Genes to some of the Indians called the (Black Foot Indian – which means speed). News travelled back to the ships with those special African sailing to the U.S. with unchained slaves. Upon arrival in the U.S. port they turned away the ships to Jamaica and up on landing they fled into the hills of Jamaica. It is not that easy to find those individual with the Special Genes. When you find them and turn that Gene on in training you never know what will happened. You can dope all the other African as well as other races and they will not beat them on the track. That is the reason why you find the U.S. and Jamaica sit a top the world of Sprinting. You can train the Americans on grass track or the Jamaican on Mondo track it makes no difference who the top three sprinters are going to be, as long as they carry the special genes.The majority of those Special people came to the West without chains. When they tried to put them in chain on the high seas it caused mutiny. So if you can find some of the Black-Foot Indians of America and trained them, you will find them on top of the podium, because many of them carry that special DNA of the African Emissaries. These men were skilled in camouflage and guerilla warfare and tactics. In Jamaica they used it to defeat the British (Red Coat) army with their muskets and cannons. The men and women were moving so fast in the Jungle they thought they were seeing ghost, only to be killed at the speed of light without a shot being fired by the hunted.
    Sorry, J. Dear, but the bikini short won over the bloomers. The Christian fought tooth and nail to keep the bloomers (skirt with shorts underneath). I don’t see anything wrong with it, as long as they are not walking around on the street dress like that. If you go to the beach, bikini is ok, and children are present on the beach. So J. Dear do you let your kids watch beach volleyball? Need not I say more, big money wins every time.
23. Watcher says:

    August 24, 2013 at 10:51 am

    Lorenzo, a wheh you get dem tings from?
24. lorenzo bartlett says:

    August 24, 2013 at 6:42 pm

    However, during the 1800′s, a lot of Native Americans suddenly began to surface in the southeast identified as “Blackfoot” or “Blackfoot-Cherokee.” There are several theories as to why. One is that “Blackfoot” may just have been a popular tribe around then, so great-grandma from South Carolina got remembered as a Blackfoot Princess simply because it sounded more glamorous than “Catawba” did. This kind of thing happened more often than you might think (coincidentally enough, many people have been incorrectly identified as Cherokees when they really belonged to some other tribe, as well). Second, “Blackfoot” was evidently a code word among the early African-American community for a person of mixed American Indian and African heritage. And third, I’ve heard it suggested that local white people may have called the Saponi people of Virginia and North Carolina “Blackfoot” for some reason–possibly because the name of a Saponi band, town, or leader may have translated as “Black Foot.” Since the Saponi were known for taking in escaped African slaves, perhaps the second and third theories might both be true.
    A Questionable BlackFoot Indian Heritage?

    It’s common knowledge that the Black and Native American mix exists in the United States. However, when African Americans, particularly those with families from states such as Mississippi, claim a BlackFoot Indian Heritage, a questions arises. How could this particular Black and Indian mix take place? The BlackFoot, also known as the BlackFeet are not from the southern states such as Mississippi. While this sounds like a legitimate question, it generally is asked by someone who does not understand how loosely the terms “BlackFoot” and “BlackFeet” Indian is, and always have been used.

    The Southern Black and Native American Mix

    More than one tribe of Native American Indians were called the BlackFeet/BlackFoot tribe in history. The Sioux of the Cheyenne River, the BlackFeet of the Rocky Mountain region, the Choctaw, the Cherokee, and the “half-breeds,” who were Black and Indian, were all commonly called “BlackFeet” or “BlackFoot.”

    Many African Americans have family roots in the southern state of Mississippi. This is one of the states where Native Americans in history, especially members of the Choctaw tribe, frequently intermarried with Blacks. Those Native Americans themselves, as well as the children they had with African Americans, were commonly called “BlackFeet.” They were also called “BlackFoot tribe Indians.” No one questioned their genuine BlackFoot Indian heritage, because the use of the terms was understood in that part of the country.

    African Americans researching their family roots in which there might be BlackFoot Indian heritage would do well to keep these helpful facts in mind.
25. lorenzo bartlett says:

    August 24, 2013 at 9:16 pm

    I would greatly appreciate any source documentation of the reply credited to Queen Elizabeth II as to African chiefs getting paid for the slaves taken from Africa. I once wrote that I get a lot of schooling from this forum: this would be another instance of such. Please Mr. (I hope I am right calling you Mr.) Uko Okpok, or anybody who has the required data, forward such to me anyway you choose and as soon as possible. Thanks.
    Thank you for sharing the snippet of history.
    The question I have is: should the African states
    who participated in slavery be responsible for part of
    reparation; for instance should the Ibibio, Ibo,
    Yoruba Nations etc. be responsible for part of the
    reparations or should the specific regions of these
    states be responsible since they profited directly
    from these immoral trade; that is Aro in Ibo , Efik in
    Ibibio ,and Bonny in ijaw etc. etc?
    I am asking this question in light of recent referral
    of descendants of Africans in Jamaica West Indies by
    Queen Elizabeth 11 to African Chiefs, when asked by
    these descendants of African slaves for compensation
    for free labour by their ancestors. Her contention was
    that the African Chiefs got paid.
    English competition later undermined the Dutch
    position. Although slave ports from Lagos to Calabar
    would see the flags of many other European maritime
    countries (including Denmark, Sweden, and
    Brandenburg) and the North American colonies,
    Britain became the dominant slaving power in the
    eighteenth century. Its ships handled two-fifths of
    the transatlantic traffic during the century. The
    Portuguese and French were responsible for another
    two-fifths.
    Nigeria kept its important position in the slave
    trade throughout the great expansion of the
    transatlantic trade after the middle of the
    seventeenth century. Slightly more slaves came from
    the Nigerian coast than from Angola in the
    eighteenth century, while in the nineteenth century
    perhaps 30 percent of all slaves sent across the
    Atlantic came from Nigeria. Over the period of the
    whole trade, more than 3.5 million slaves were
    shipped from Nigeria to the Americas. Most of these
    slaves were Igbo and Yoruba, with significant
    concentrations of Hausa, Ibibio, and other ethnic
    groups. In the eighteenth century, two polities–Oyo
    and the Aro confederacy–were responsible for most
    of the slaves exported from Nigeria. The Aro
    confederacy continued to export slaves through the
    1830s, but most slaves in the nineteenth century
    were a product of the Yoruba civil wars that
    followed the collapse of Oyo in the 1820s.
    The expansion of Oyo after the middle of the
    sixteenth century was closely associated with the
    growth of slave exports across the Atlantic. Oyo’s
    cavalry pushed southward along a natural break in
    the forests (known as the Benin Gap, i.e., the
    opening in the forest where the savanna stretched to
    the Bight of Benin), and thereby gained access to
    the coastal ports.Oyo experienced a series of power struggles and
    constitutional crises in the eighteenth century that
    directly related to its success as a major slave
    exporter. The powerful Oyo Mesi, the council of
    warlords that checked the king, forced a number of
    kings to commit suicide. In 1754 the head of the Oyo
    Mesi, basorun Gaha, seized power, retaining a series
    of kings as puppets. The rule of this military
    oligarchy was overcome in 1789, when King Abiodun
    successfully staged a countercoup and forced the
    suicide of Gaha. Abiodun and his successors
    maintained the supremacy of the monarchy until the
    second decade of the nineteenth century, primarily
    because of the reliance of the king on a cavalry
    force that was independent of the Oyo Mesi. This
    force was recruited largely from Muslim slaves,
    especially Hausa, from farther north.
    Watcher this is only a snippet of history. I was a history “Buff”.
    The destruction of Africa started with the “Christian Colonization” (my terminology for religious fear) of the Niger Delta, by David Livingstone and other preachers.
    Books: To read the Rise and Fall of Rome, The Third Reich, Valkyrie (The Fourth Reich)Joseph Stalin, The making of the West Indies, The People Who Came, Amistad, The Transatlantic Slave Trade …
26. lorenzo bartlett says:

    August 25, 2013 at 1:20 pm

    Study: West Germany cultivated culture of doping among athletes for international success

    Published August 05, 2013
    Associated Press

    BERLIN – West Germany’s government encouraged and covered up a culture of doping among its athletes for decades, according to a comprehensive study released Monday.

    The report, titled “Doping in Germany from 1950 to today,” accuses the Federal Institute of Sport Science of having held the central role in a government-backed attempt to dope athletes for international success.

    The report states that the institute (BISp), which was formed under jurisdiction of the Interior Ministry in 1970, attempted to establish “systemic doping under the guise of basic research.”

    The 501-page report was published by BISp after some details were disclosed in a newspaper article last weekend.

    While West German government control over sport was not comparable to that in East Germany, the authors of the report state: “The participation of many national coaches, sports doctors and officials was in a manner conspicuously similar to the systematic doping system of the GDR.”

    The study was conducted by researchers under the leadership of Giselher Spitzer at Berlin’s Humboldt University with another team based in the University of Muenster. It was completed in April but publication had been postponed indefinitely because of issues over publishing names. Pressure to publish the full document grew after the Sueddeutsche Zeitung newspaper released details of the report Saturday.

    Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/sports/2013/08/05/study-west-germany-cultivated-culture-doping-among-athletes-for-international/#ixzz2d0S4yWKA
27. Mr Weir says:

    August 26, 2013 at 3:48 pm

    Shelly Ann Fraser price is simply the best woman 100/200 meter athlete I have ever had the pleasure of watching.

    P.S, Shelly watch who you eat and drink from
    there are people out there would love to bring you down.

    Cecil Weir.
28. CIsaacs says:

    August 28, 2013 at 5:42 am

    Shelly is simply the greatest female runner Jamaica has eve produced.VCB and Ottey have to take a back seat to this girl.And I think VCB has a problem with her also,but the results don’t lie.
29. Jdonman says:

    August 28, 2013 at 1:48 pm

    I love VCB, but I have to agree with CIsaacs, VCB does have a problem with Shelly’s hard earned success. She is very aloof towards Shelly when they cross the finish line together. If she wants to be as successful as Shelly she should consider training with Shelly before its too late.
30. tami says:

    August 28, 2013 at 9:47 pm

    I second that, I am waiting to see VCB train with Shellann or Usain, her 100m need alots of work, The bad blood between those two is coming from the 2008 Jamaica trials, but I think VCB took it personal with her attitude toward Shellyann, but I still love them.