Shericka Jackson rues ‘discouraging’ Paris 2024 experience after injury

Olympic and world champion, Shericka Jackson, rues her hopes to win gold at Paris 2024 being “shattered” due to injury.

Releasing a statement via Instagram, Jackson expressed her feelings about missing out on participating in a third straight Olympics. The fastest woman alive over 200m quipped, “Should I accept the good and not the bad?” while relaying her emotions. “Having won the sprint double at the 2024 Jamaican Olympic Trials, I was hopeful that I would earn three more Olympic medals for Jamaica Land I Love. However, injury has intervened,” she added.

Jackson also admitted the responses to her inability to compete in Paris were “encouraging and discouraging.” The decorated Team Jamaica star thanked the fans, her sponsors and teammates who offered positive feedback during her ordeal.

 

View this post on Instagram

 

A post shared by Shericka Jackson (@sherickajacko)

Shortly before she was set to compete at the summer games, Jackson pulled up due to injury during a women’s 200m race in Hungary. The undisclosed injury led to Jackson skipping the women’s 100m. She later claimed the original plan was to run the 200m and 4x100m relay. However, when it came time to run the women’s 200m heats, Jackson registered a did not start (DNS), with the injury believed to be more serious than initially thought.

The Domino Effect

Shericka Jackson hoped to add to her Olympic medal tally. The tally includes bronze in the women’s 400m and silver in the women’s 4x400m at Rio 2016. She bettered that at Tokyo 2020, winning gold in the women’s 4x100m relay to go with bronze medals in the women’s 100m and 4x400m relay. Her absence, plus Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson Herah’s injuries, caused Jamaica to miss out on medals in the women’s 100m and 200m. Paris 2024 marks the first time Jamaica failed to medal in the Olympic women’s 100m or 200m since Montreal 1976.

Jackson is the reigning world champion in the women’s 200m title. There, she broke her own record for the fastest time ever in the event by a living woman (21.41 secs).