Mentoring young girls and women continues to be one of Veronica Campbell-Brown's main aims even after her retirement from the sport of track and field in 2021.
The eight-time Olympic medalist spoke during an interview at the Edwin Moses Legends Meet held at Morehouse College in Atlanta on Saturday.
“It is important to me to mentor not only Jamaican track & field but females in general because, growing up, I had a lot of influential women there to support and inspire me,” she said.
“Inspiring others is one of the things that I’m passionate about because I know that a lot it’s not just about your talent or how good you are, it’s about how mentally tough and resilient you are to go towards your goals and get over the hurdles and obstacles that are in your way,” Campbell-Brown added.
Most of her motivational work is done through her foundation, Veronica Campbell-Brown Foundation.
“I’m very interested in motivating and I’m always doing that. I motivate girls through my foundation and every chance I get, I try to inspire and uplift girls and women to achieve their goals no matter the obstacles they face,” she said.
Campbell-Brown also offered her opinion on the rise of women’s sports in general.
“It’s continuing to rise and get more respect and attention which is great. It takes the entire world to come behind all of us and just motivate, push and support us because as women we have to work extra hard to achieve what we want and to break down the glass ceiling,” she stated.
The 42-year-old is the second of three women in history to win consecutive Olympic 200m titles and is also one of only nine athletes to win world championships at the youth, junior, and senior levels.
She boasts personal bests of 10.76 seconds in the 100m and 21.74 seconds in the 200m.
Campbell-Brown was the 100m gold medalist at the 2007 World Championships and the 200m gold medalist at the 2011 World Championships.
Throughout her illustrious career, she has also secured seven silver medals and one bronze medal at the World Championships.
She is also a two-time World Indoor champion over 60m.