'Rocket' hoping to finish with a bang

It certainly wasn't Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce's greatest race.

But, in getting to the core of who she is and how to define the most decorated female 100-meter sprinter to ever put on spikes, that race earlier this year against other parents at her son's school sports day says a lot.

Fraser-Pryce beat all those parents in the short sprint by a veritable mile. The drone footage of the race is hilarious. At 38, with enough medals, trophies and other hardware to fill a warehouse, Fraser-Pryce surely didn't have to line up for that one.

But she was a parent and her son, Zyon, was a student and ...why not? Did the thought of easing up a bit — letting some lucky mom or dad say she hung with, or beat, the champ — ever cross her mind?

"I would never do that," Fraser-Pryce said with a laugh. "It's not in my DNA to do it. What amazes me is that they actually think they stood a chance!"

Delayed retirement

Fraser-Pryce will be back on the starting block for the 100m at the upcoming World Athletics Championships in Tokyo — her eighth and, she says, final appearance on track's biggest stage outside of the Olympics.

This is a retirement that has been delayed by a year after things at what was supposed to be her closing act — at the Paris Games a year ago — went dreadfully wrong.

It's a chance for the three-time Olympic gold medalist, the champion for women in sports and the athlete many have watched grow up — from a 21-year-old braces-faced unknown in Beijing to an all-time great — to go out on her own terms.

On the day of the 100m final in Paris last year, a video of Fraser-Pryce being denied entry to the stadium popped up on social media.

It happened to several sprinters that day, including the American favorite at the time, Sha'Carri Richardson.

The Olympics called it a simple mix-up. The video shows Fraser-Pryce clearly under duress, as she argues that, up to that day — the most important day — she and other athletes had gone in through the same gate where they were now being denied.

She stood there for around 30 minutes to see if the situation would be resolved. She saw bus-loads of athletes passing by, watching the scene unfold. She felt humiliated.

By the time she finally made it to the warm-up track, an hour later than scheduled, nothing felt right. If nothing else, finely tuned sprinters are creatures of habit. Fraser-Pryce, running well that season and in the mix for a medal, had lost her mojo.

"I've had injuries before, and I've had setbacks, and I've really been tough and got it done," she said. "And this time, I wasn't able to get to the line. It's the first time in my entire career, I had a panic attack. That's what the unfinished business is — not having the opportunity to walk away knowing I gave everything."