The year 2024 proved to be one of the most challenging of Shericka Jackson’s career.
The Jamaican athletics star began it with the highest of hopes, a first individual Olympic gold medal in Paris firmly in her sights. And she had every reason to believe it was possible. She was the reigning back-to-back world champion over 200m and the fastest woman alive in the event.
Only six months earlier, in Budapest, Jackson had clocked 21.41 and still looked visibly disappointed as she crossed the line. The frustration came from missing Florence Griffith-Joyner’s long-standing world record of 21.34, but her reaction spoke volumes: she believed the mark was within her reach.
Heading into the Paris 2024 Olympic Games, the expectations were sky-high, not only for Olympic gold, but for the possibility of rewriting the record books in the 200m. In the 100m, she had also shown enough to suggest that a sprint double could not be ruled out; after all, she is already a double world silver medallist and an Olympic bronze medallist in the event.
What she could not have foreseen was the series of setbacks ahead, with injuries derailing her build-up and ultimately forcing her to withdraw from what was meant to be her crowning Games in the French capital.
“Last year was really, really hard for me, mentally and physically,” Jackson said in May ahead the Xiamen Diamond League, her first outdoor race of 2025 at the end of April.
“But I had my family, friends and coaches in my circle. Coach and I sat down and had a conversation during the Olympics and we worked on the fine details and I took some time to get healthy,” she said.
That break appears to have paid off and the five-time Olympic medallists has quietly turned disappointment into a 2025 season characterised by measured progress and growing confidence.