SHERICKA JACKSON is one of the fastest women in history and could become a superstar at the Paris Olympics.
The Jamaican is heading to the French capital as part of a star-studded team including legend Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Hansle Parchment.
She enjoyed the best season of her career last year, but who is the 30-year-old Jamaican aiming to win her first individual Olympic gold?
Jackson was born in Saint Ann, Jamaica on July 16 1994.
She moved around when she was younger, which she believes made her more aggressive on and off the track.
In a tell-all interview she revealed she grew up without a lot of love and believes she was forced to mature quickly.
Jackson said: “I had this wall up from when I was a child, I think it is kind of hard, I got a bit of help, so the wall is coming down a little bit, but it is still there. I never grew up with a lot of love, so therefore I don’t know how to show love.
“I felt like I never had enough to be a child, I felt like I was older than a child moving around, being here for a little while, there for a little while. So, I believe that’s one of the reasons I’m very aggressive even today.
“It plays out good sometimes and bad. If you see me and don’t know me personally you would not want to approach me. It is good, and it is bad but now I’m in a better space where I’m not so aggressive. I can be but I think I’m a better grown-up now.”
Like her Jamaica team-mate Fraser-Pryce, Jackson features in Netflix‘s new series ‘Sprint’.
Jackson competed in her first Olympic Games in 2016, winning 400m bronze and 4x400m relay silver.
Nearly 15,000 residents – around 10,500 of which are athletes – will be cramming into the Olympic village between July 26 and August 11.
To ensure the athletes feel at home, a number of provisions have been made by organisers.
One of these is the stocking of some 300,000 condoms, in theory enough for around two every day during the run of the Games.
A number of Olympic athletes have opened the door on their steamy lives behind-the-scenes when in camp, including huge sex orgies and parties.
London 2012 had claimed the title of “the raunchiest Games ever”, but the 150,000 condoms ordered paled in comparison to the 450,000 ordered for the Rio Games four years later.
Condoms have been laid on by organisers at every game since Seoul 1988, when it they were used to spread awareness of HIV and AIDS.
Even with an intimacy ban at Tokyo 2020 due to Covid-19, some 150,000 johnnies were handed out.
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Fast forward eight years and she is now the second fastest woman of all time in 200m, recording a time of 21.41 on her way to winning World Championships gold in Budapest last year.
She will have 200m gold in her sights in Paris having been untouchable in the event in recent years – having also finished first at the 2022 World Athletics Championship.
In Tokyo Jackson claimed her first Olympic gold medal in the 4x100m relay.
But she is still yet to taste individual victory after picking up bronze in the 100m, as well as the 4x400m relay.
Jackson is set to compete in the 100m and 200m in Paris, as well the 4x100m, an event she has a world gold medal in from Doha 2019.
Jackson has only one target in mind this year – winning individual gold in the Olympics.
She said ahead of the Games: “The coach and I have been working on many things, and last year we came close. This year, we will work on the finer details as we hope for the best at the end of this season.
“I haven’t won an individual gold medal at the Olympic Games yet, so that’s definitely one of my goals this year, and I’m working to achieve it by the end of August.
“Every race is an opportunity to show my best self. No matter how tough the journey, I’m always ready to give it my all on the track,”
