Jamaica’s Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce covered 100 meters in 10.75 seconds Aug. 4, regaining the fastest woman in the world title by beating U.S. sprinter Carmelita Jeter in the closest race finish of any track event so far during the 2012 Olympic Games in London.
The African-American sprinter gave it her all in the quest for gold, but came just three-hundreds of a second behind Fraser-Pryce, who had won gold in the 100-meter race during the 2008 Olympic Games in Beijing. Jeter crossed the line at 10.78 seconds.
Jeter’s silver medal is the first Olympic medal won in the 100-meter dash by a U.S. sprinter since Gail Devers won gold during the 1996 Olympics Games in Atlanta. It’s also the first Olympic medal of Jeter’s career.
“I hope I made my country proud,” the 32-year-old of Los Angeles, Calif. said after the race. “I left my all out there on that track, so I hope I represented USA well.”
Fellow African-American sprinter Allyson Felix, who won a gold medal as a member of the 4×100 meter relay team during the 2008 Olympic Games, finished in fourth place behind Jamaica’s Veronica Campbell-Brown, who placed third.
Fraser-Pryce is the first woman to win gold medals in the 100 meter in back-to-back Olympic Games since Devers won in 1992 and then ’96.