Shericka Jackson is one of Jamaica’s most promising athletes and despite concerns, she qualified for the Paris Olympics, marking her third appearance on the sport’s grandest stage. However, back during the Tokyo Olympics, Jackson went through one of the toughest times of her life when she failed to qualify for the 200-meter sprint. Now, on Netflix’s new docu-series ‘Sprint’ the athlete finally opened up about the mental breakdown she had to endure following the heartbreaking setback.
Jackson took home two medals at the 2016 Olympics in Rio: one for the 400-meter sprint and one for the 4×400-meter relay team. At Tokyo, she was the center of attention as expected, and she delivered by taking home bronze in the 100-meter finals, joining Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce on the Team Jamaica podium.
However, in the 200-meter dash, Jackson finished fourth and was eliminated in the heats. There was a great deal of uproar in the track community about this since the athlete was unjustly accused of being disinterested. In her summary of the events leading up to her sprint collapse, Jackson states:
“At the Olympic Games…Jamaica was expecting me to win a gold medal. But I was super nervous. And I made a silly mistake.”
Before this incident, Jackson was regarded as a celebrity, but everything changed when she started receiving hate on social media and other platforms due to her heat elimination. As she recalls it, the entire situation was extremely difficult to get through.
“After the Olympics, I was so shaken that I had a mental breakdown.”
Nevertheless, keeping the challenges aside, Jackson realized that in order to avenge herself and recover her reputation, she needed to defeat a specific athlete in any of the categories in which she would compete at the 2023 World Championships.
Jackson Battling It Out With Sha’Carri Richardson
All eyes were on the women’s 100 and 200-meter sprints at the 2023 World Championships as Shericka Jackson and Sha’Carri Richardson faced off on the track. They first battled in the 100-meter finals, where the American athlete led the race with a 10.65 and the Jamaican athlete trailed behind with a 10.72.
This contest also raised expectations for the 200 meters, and when they met again in the finals, Jackson annihilated the competition by finishing first with a 21.41. Richardson finished third in 21.92 seconds, and with this event, the Jamaican sprinter regained the trust of her fans in the 200-meter competitions.
