Jamaica: Most decorated Jamaican Olympian Veronica Campbell Brown has announced her retirement on the eve of her nation’s Olympic Trials.
She has won back-to-back Olympic 200m titles.
The 39-year old player stated via her social media, “As I take off my spikes never to put them on again, this girl from Clarks Town walks away happy and contented with a race well run.”
“Through the grace of God, I have climbed from a small town in Trelawny, Jamaica, up the ladder of success to become one of the most decorated women in the Olympic Games and World Championships history.”
Campbell-Brown raced at five Olympics from the year of 2000 to 2016 and earned eight medals. She has one shy of the Olympic women’s track and tracks record.
In the year 2004, she defeated an 18-year-old Allyson Felix for gold in Athens and became Jamaica’s first Olympic flat sprint champion in twenty-eight years.
Campbell-Brown also surpassed in 100m and won a world title in the year 2007 and Olympic bronze medals in 2004 and 2012.
She was also honoured with a statue in a park outside the National Stadium in Kingston, Jamaica and other champions from her period such as – Usain Bolt, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Asafa Powell.
Former Jamaican Olympic sprint legends such as- Herb McKenley, Don Quarrie and Merlene Ottey were earlier also honoured with statues. Campbell-Brown came from the same area as Bolt and the same high school to which Ottey went.
A few years ago, the sprinter stated that “I realized in primary school, around 10, that I had a chance. I would run a lot, and I would win. I would beat the girls, I would beat the boys, and I realized there was something special about this gift that I had.”
