SAINT-DENIS, France — Just minutes before she was scheduled to appear in the women’s 100-meter semifinals, three-time Olympic gold medalist Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce withdrew from competition at the Stade de France on Saturday.
The Jamaican sprinter’s late scratch came as a surprise, since she had appeared at the track to warm up two hours before the event.
Fraser-Pryce’s absence from the semifinal might have ended up helping American Sha’Carri Richardson, who advanced out of the same heat Fraser-Pryce was supposed to run. With a second-place finish to Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred, Richardson still automatically qualified for the finals later in the evening.
It remains unclear as to why Fraser-Pryce, a five-time Olympian, suddenly pulled out of the race.
In videos posted to social media about two hours before the race, Fraser-Pryce and Richardson were both seen having trouble getting past security as they tried reaching the warmup track just outside the stadium. It also remains unclear exactly what the issue was that prevented them from getting inside the necessary venue.
Around the time the 100-meter semifinal heats began, rain started falling at the stadium. Although a roof canopy hangs over the entirety of the stands and the fringe of the surface, the lanes of the track are exposed to the elements.
Fraser-Pryce, 37, first appeared at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, winning the 100 meters in 10.78 seconds.
The scratch for Fraser-Pryce came amid a somewhat dispiriting stretch for Jamaican sprint fans. In late June, five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah announced she wouldn’t compete at the Olympics due to an Achilles injury. She was hurt earlier in the month when she went down at the end of a race at the New York Grand Prix. Then, a few days ago, fellow Jamaican sprinter Shericka Jackson decided to skip the 100 meters, placing her focus instead solely on the 200 meters and relays.
Richardson, making her Olympics debut, will go for her first medal in a finals heat that also includes fellow Americans and training partners Melissa Jefferson and Twanisha Terry.