There are certain heartbreaks that you see coming, but the awareness does nothing to dull the pain. Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce‘s retirement was one such instance. A titan of the sport, Fraser-Pryce was one of the best to ever do it, but she didn’t do it alone. Her career is often defined by her friendship and fierce rivalry with compatriot and fellow icon, Elaine Thompson-Herah. The two dominated not just on the track but also off of it in discussions of which of the two was the undisputed number one. But despite all of Fraser-Pryce’s accolades, she did fall short of Thompson-Herah in one regard.

Erin Brown, a track and field personality famous for his controversial opinions on X, made two posts about the Jamaican legend after her retirement. One read, “18 years and 5 Olympics and still don’t got more Olympic golds than Elaine🕊️🥀”. In her almost two-decade-long career, Fraser-Pryce won individual Olympic gold medals in the 100m at Beijing 2008 and London 2012 and ran the third leg for Jamaica’s 4×100m relay team that clocked 41.02 s for gold at Tokyo 2020. At the Rio Olympics, she won the 100m bronze in 10.86s, but in Paris last year, she withdrew last minute from her signature event due to a logistical issue.

When Fraser-Pryce came third in the 100m at the Rio Olympics, it was none other than Elaine Thompson-Herah who recorded 10.71 seconds on the clock for gold, while Tori Bowie of the United States took silver in 10.83 seconds. In that very same Olympics, Thompson-Herah claimed another gold, this time in the 200m. The Jamaican sprinter recorded 21.78 seconds, ahead of Dafne Schippers (22.18s) and Tori Bowie (22.15s). Then she did the sprint triple in the Tokyo Olympics, raising her tally to five Olympic golds—four individual and one relay.

In the 100m finals of the 2020 Olympics, Thompson-Herah successfully defended her title, setting an Olympic record with a time of 10.61 seconds, surpassing Florence Griffith Joyner’s record from 1988. Fraser-Pryce secured the silver medal in 10.74 seconds.

Thompson-Hearh also defended her 200m title as well with a personal best of 21.53 seconds, marking the third-fastest time in history, while Fraser-Pryce once again had to settle for second. Their rivalry was set aside for the 4×100 relay, however, where the two came together to help win Jamaica the gold.

To sum up, Fraser-Pryce has three Olympic gold medals, while Thompson-Herah has five. The debate gets even sharper when you consider that Fraser-Pryce took five Olympics to amass her haul, while Thompson-Herah did it in only two.

Now that the 3x Olympic gold medalist is retired, it’s a debate that has reached its conclusion, though it must be pointed out that Fraser-Pryce has a total of 8 Olympic medals, while Thompson-Herah only has 6. But in their head-to-head record, it is Elaine Thompson-Herah who once again has the upper hand.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce vs. Elaine Thompson-Herah in the 100m

In a separate post, Erin Brown also wrote, “Elaine is the greatest women’s sprinter we’ve ever seen this side of FloJo ! These folks only win if she’s hurt or not there!” In a debate that followed in the thread, he also pointed out how in the 100m, the head-to-head record lies at 9-4, in favor of the 5-time Olympic gold medalist.

The first time the two Jamaican powerhouses came face-to-face was in the semifinals of the 2016 Jamaican Championships, where Elaine Thompson-Herah crossed the line first in 10.85 seconds, followed by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in 11.12. Their ordinals remained the same in the final, with Thompson-Herah taking the win (10.70 to Fraser-Pryce’s 10.93). Then came the Rio Olympics, where Thompson-Herah shone with double golds, while Fraser-Pryce could only manage a 100m bronze.

After six career meetings, Fraser-Pryce’s first win over Thompson-Herah came in 2019. It was the 2019 World Athletics Championships, and Fraser-Pryce let the demons out on the track as she won the race in 10.71 seconds, while Thompson-Herah came fourth in 10.93s. Then, in the Jamaican Championships in 2021, things got interesting. Thompson-Herah beat Fraser-Pryce by two-hundredths of a second in the semifinals, winning, but the 3-time Olympic champion beat the 5-time Olympic champion in the final. Nonetheless, it was Thompson-Herah who won gold at the Olympics that year in Tokyo.

“Of course you are disappointed, you know, and the only aim that an athlete lines up for is to always win, but that didn’t happen tonight. I am still grateful to be able to make the finals and to be able to stand on the podium at my fourth Olympic Games,“ Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce said after the race.

Notably, she was also an inspiration for Thompson-Herah. After the 2021 season, Thompson-Herah said, “I know Shelly-Ann is a hard-working woman. And the fact that she is running so fast at 34 gives me motivation that I can do it again at the next Olympics in Paris when I am 32. She has done it, so I can do it too.” But that dream never came true.

The last race between the two at a major event was at the 2022 World Athletics Championships. In that race, it was Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce who went sub-10.70 to win the gold in 10.67 seconds, while Elaine Thompson-Herah settled for bronze in 10.81. Whatever the debate might be, it’s undeniable that the two of them have been some of the best talents gifted by Jamaica to women’s track and field.