Paris, France — Shanieka Ricketts captured the silver medal within the ladies’s triple bounce on the Paris 2024 Olympic Video games, marking a big achievement in her profession and for Jamaican athletics.
The 32-year-old athlete jumped to a season-best 14.87 meters, securing her place behind St Lucia’s Thea Lafond, who set a nationwide file with a 15.02-meter bounce. American Jasmine Moore claimed the bronze with a season-best 14.67 meters.
Reflecting on her achievement, Ricketts shared her feelings and journey, noting that the fact of changing into an Olympic medalist hadn’t absolutely sunk in. “Probably not,” she mentioned, when requested if she felt like an Olympic medalist. “Somewhat bit after I exited the pit it’s like, okay, I’m an Olympic medalist, however I feel perhaps tomorrow morning after I get up I’ll notice what simply occurred as a result of that is actually a dream of mine. I feel each athlete goals of being an Olympic medalist.”
Challenges confronted
Ricketts acknowledged the challenges she confronted main as much as the Video games, describing a season that hadn’t gone as deliberate. “The season wasn’t precisely what I’d have wished it to be. Coaching was going good and the whole lot, however in competitors, I wasn’t getting the distances,” she defined. “So I simply needed to belief and consider and maintain placing within the work, and that’s what I did, and it paid off tonight.”
The journey to her silver medal was not simple, as Ricketts needed to struggle onerous in opposition to a powerful area. “I got here in ranked between fifth and seventh, so I knew that I needed to struggle tonight if I wished a medal as a result of everybody within the area is able to leaping massive distances,” she mentioned. “It was only a matter of who turned up and who stayed true to the sport.”
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Ricketts additionally shared the emotional second she had together with her assist staff after securing the medal, recounting the troublesome coaching classes main as much as the competitors. “Simply 4 weeks coming into the Olympic Video games, I bear in mind one coaching session the place I used to be like, ‘This isn’t occurring,’ and I didn’t understand how I used to be going to contend for a medal. I needed to dig actually deep, belief God, and consider that the work I put in would repay, and that’s what occurred.”
It means the whole lot
Having missed the rostrum with a fourth-place end on the Tokyo 2021 Olympics, Ricketts was decided to not expertise that disappointment once more. “It’s true [that fourth place is the loneliest place] as a result of up till final night time, it performed on my thoughts. I’m like, I can’t let that occur once more, so it’s like a continuing reminder,” she mentioned. “Because the rounds progressed, I simply made certain that that didn’t occur as a result of I don’t suppose I might dwell with coming fourth once more.”
Ricketts expressed her satisfaction in being an Olympic silver medalist and a job mannequin for others, together with younger rising star Ackelia Smith. “It means the whole lot. To be a job mannequin to different individuals, now we have Ackelia Smith, and I bear in mind when she was at Edwin Allen Excessive College, I had the privilege of talking to her at a monitor meet and shared just a few suggestions. She’s right here, she’s competing with me,” she mentioned. “To know that after I resolve to maneuver away from the game, it’s in protected palms, which means lots to me.”
Wanting forward, Ricketts was enthusiastic about celebrating her achievement in a easy but joyful approach. “Ice cream! Any taste, simply ice cream, and burger, and fries, and pizza, and the whole lot that’s unhealthy,” she mentioned with fun.
Her silver medal provides to Jamaica’s rising listing of area occasion successes, highlighting a broader rise within the nation’s athletic prowess past the monitor.
