Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce Down With Skeng’s Music At Prefontaine Classic
Having faced a dramatic week—during which he was pepper-sprayed and arrested at the Norman Manley International Airport, and then had his Guyanese show marred by gunshots—Skeng has something to smile about courtesy of the darling of Jamaican track, and one of the greatest sprinters of all time, Shelly-ann Fraser-Pryce.
The Protocol artist, indeed, got something to lift his spirits as the eight-time Olympic medalist has revealed that she is down with his music, particularly his London track.
Shelly shared a video on Twitter of herself dancing up a storm on Friday, during a training session a day before she sped to victory in the women’s 200m, at the Nike Prefontaine Classic 2022, the third Diamond League event of the athletics season in Eugene, Oregon, where the World Athletics Championships is to be held in July.
The reigning World 100-metre champion had captioned the tweet: “Tell me track is life without telling me track is life. I’ll go first…” and her followers had struggled to guess the name of the songs to which she was listening.
Tell me track is life without telling me track is life.
I’ll go first… 😂 pic.twitter.com/lztXpBKgAT
— ShellyAnnFraserPryce (@realshellyannfp) May 26, 2022
Hours later in an interview with a Citius Mag sports reporter, the track icon was asked about the video and the song to which she was dancing.
In her response, the 35-year-old laughingly explained that she had initially told her friends that she was listening to the kiddies song Reading Rainbow, but was going to tell all.
“But truly now, I was actually listening to Skeng, which is an artiste from Jamaica; his song called London,” the Pocket Rocket explained, perhaps to the surprise of many.
It is really no surprise, however, that the four-time World Champion would love the hook to Skeng’s London, as the English capital holds beautiful memories for her.
London was the city where she successfully defended her 100 metre Olympic Title in 2012 at age 25, becoming the third woman in history to accomplish this feat.
The London Olympics was also Jamaica’s most successful performance in the history of the Summer Olympics. Staged in Jamaica’s 50th year of independence, the country had sent a delegation of 50 athletes (25 men and 25 women), to the games.
Jamaica’s cohort of elite sprinters which included Fraser Pryce and Usain Bolt had broken the nation’s record for the largest number of medals won in a single games.
Sprint kingpin Usain Bolt had become the first man to win consecutive sprint doubles at the Olympic Games, with a strong 19.32 run in the 200m final – leading home a historic Jamaican medal sweep in the event, with his Racers stablemates Yohan Blake clocking 19.44 run for the silver medal and Warren Weir, who was running at his Olympic Games, copping bronze ahead of the United States’ Wallace Spearmon.
Fraser-Pryce had shot to international track stardom at the 2008 Beijing Olympics where she became the first Caribbean woman to win gold in the 100 metres.
After mining more gold in London, she copped bronze at the 2016 Rio Olympics after a toe injury affected her season. In 2021, the Waterhouse native took home silver at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics becoming the first athlete to medal in the 100 m at four consecutive Olympic Games.
As for Skeng, his myriad of woes escalated on Friday night, when he had to end his set abruptly as he performed at the ‘Baderation’ Dancehall concert at the National Park in Guyana—this after some patrons began to do gun salutes during his performance of his hit tracks Gvnman Shift and Protocol.
Prior to that, on Tuesday afternoon, the 21-year-old was removed from a flight at the Norman Manley International Airport and later charged for disorderly behaviour and resisting arrest, over what news reports say stemmed from attempts by him to board the flight with a container of bleaching cream, which was over the allowable limit. Skeng was offered bail and is to appear before the Kingston and St. Andrew parish court on June 21.
The artist, whose given name is Kevaun Douglas, has described himself as having a troubled past in his teenage years, which resulted in him being transferred from school to school; from Wolmer’s Boys’ School, St George’s College, Hydel High, and later to Quality Academics and then Excelsior Community College to complete the final year of his secondary education. However, he had explained that was hoping to redeem himself through music.
“In third form I became a little rebellious and wanting to do things my way, I landed myself in a lot of trouble. That’s how I was transferred to St George’s. Even after that, I continued to be carefree, and then we had to move to Spanish Town. It was a challenging time,” Skeng told The Star tabloid in July last year.