2022 Nike Pre Classic: Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on motherhood

There has always been a shadow hovering over female athletes who decide to start families, or at the very least begin trying. Sponsors have pulled out of contracts and doubts have been hurled in women's direction. Track and field athletes such as Allyson Felix and Quanera Hayes have worked to shine a light on the mistreatment of women who decide to become mothers and return to their sport.

Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce - an Olympic gold, silver and bronze medalist as well as a nine-time World Athletics champion - has also worked to illuminate just how incredible women, who are mothers or not, can be within the track and field community.

"It doesn't limit you, if anything it enhances your performance and also gives you that extra push to show the world that as women we don't like to be put in a box, we like to be focused on and understood and know that we can get to the next level and evolve," Fraser-Pryce said.

In 2017, Fraser-Pryce discovered that she was pregnant with her son and was unable to defend her Jamaican national title but was quick to get back to work so that she would be prepared for her return to the track for the 2019 championships.

At the Prefontaine Classic press conference on Friday, Fraser-Pryce was happy to announce that she is not currently pregnant and is feeling good about her race this weekend which will be her ninth appearance at the meet in Eugene.

"I think Pre has been known to have the best fields and to be a champion you want to test where you're at and to have the best in the world lined up is always where you want to be," Fraser-Pryce said. "So being able to have that competition to know where you're at and what you need to work on is always good so I'm always excited to be here."

Women like Fraser-Pryce, Felix, and more exist around the world, whether they are athletes or not, but using a worldwide platform as a professional athlete has helped bring more attention to the discrepancies in treatment like never before.

These athletes have a reason and a drive to come back to competition and a lot of the time that is only amplified by the fact that they have a young child. However, Fraser-Pryce finds inspiration from other places as well.

"It was difficult to have role models in the environment we were in," Fraser-Pryce said. "I was really focused on my mom and her work ethic. That kind of gave me that drive to say I didn't want to end up in that situation."

At the Prefontaine Classic, Fraser-Pryce competed in the women's 200-meter race, finishing 1st overall with a time of 22:41 - a season-best.

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