Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s final race ended in tears, 6th place in 100m at the 2025 Worlds. But eight months later, Usain Bolt isn’t convinced she’s truly gone. She ran her career final women’s 100m race at the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, finishing 6th in 11.03 seconds. After crossing the line, she grew emotional, saying, “I came into this championship with so many odds, but I made the final.” Soon after, Usain Bolt showed his respect for her, writing, “Big up yourself @realshellyannfp…Welcome to the retirement club.” Now, almost eight months after her official retirement, Bolt doesn’t seem convinced that she has truly retired after seeing her back on the track.

On June 16, Fraser-Pryce shared an Instagram update showing her back on the track, going through hurdle drills and technical warm-up work. She was seen stepping over hurdles one by one and even moving through side drills at a controlled pace rather than full sprinting. The 39-year-old champion even captioned the post, “Athletics continues to be my driving force to this very day; pushing me beyond anything and everything and that sets a greater fire to the one I already carry inside.”

Seeing the video, Usain Bolt, who retired at 30, commented on the post, “Somebody don’t look retired 👀.” It certainly looked so!

Bolt’s reaction comes from a very different place in his own post-retirement life. The sprint legend has openly said he no longer trains like a professional athlete. He mainly sticks to gym workouts and light activity, and has admitted that he gets tired more easily now and is no longer in sprint shape after retirement and injury setbacks. Speaking at the World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, Bolt revealed that due to a ruptured Achilles tendon, he no longer runs.

“No, I mainly work out at the gym. I’m not a fan, but I think now that I’ve been inactive for a while, I really need to start running because when I climb stairs, I get out of breath,” he said. “I think when I start training seriously again, I’ll probably have to do some laps just to regulate my breathing,” he added.

Unlike Bolt, Fraser-Pryce has stayed embedded in track culture despite the lack of some of the highest-level competition since her first and only retirement. She remains active in sports and encourages young athletes to pursue their passion, is a speaker at events, and actively supports development programs in Jamaica. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce is also part of the Pocket Rocket Foundation, which works on education and development of young sporting talent, as well as holding the position of ambassador at Laureus Sport for Good.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has also stayed active in a more personal way. In April 2026, just two months before this post, Fraser-Pryce ran a parents’ 100m race at a school sports day, where she ran at full speed and won comfortably. Yet if she still looks this sharp, why retire at all? Paris 2024 holds the answer.

Paris Olympics 2024 changed Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce ’s final chapter

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was actually expected to retire after Paris 2024. She made it through her heat and into the semi-finals, but during the final warm-up, she picked up an injury and had to withdraw before stepping onto the track. With it, her Olympic run ended before she could actually race.

By September 2024, she was already back in training, though there was no clear announcement about retirement or any fixed plan for a final race at that point. But then she announced, “I believe I didn’t get the opportunity to really just do what I know I could have done in that moment. And it was hurtful,” she said later. “I had worked so hard to get to that moment and I couldn’t get to the finish line.”

This experience changed the course of her life. Instead, Fraser-Pryce chose not to walk away, but head back to the game for another season. She returned at age 38, then qualified for the 2025 World Athletics Championships in Tokyo, finishing sixth in the 100m final, before going on to help Jamaica clinch silver in the 4x100m relay before retiring from elite sprinting in October.

Behind that decision were also deeper personal reasons. “My son needs me,” says Fraser-Pryce in the interview, of the decision she’s made despite still being passionate. My husband (Jason) and I have been together since before I won in [Beijing] 2008. He has sacrificed for me. We’re a partnership, a team. And it’s because of that support that I’m able to do the things that I have been doing for all these years.”

“I think I now owe it to them to do something else,” Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce has said. But her recent appearances suggest that while her professional chapter is closed, her relationship with the track is still very much alive.