Retirement

The 39-year-old VCB, the only woman to win a medal in five consecutive Olympics, in a post on social media said the time had come to hang up her spikes.

“As I take off my spikes never to put them on again, this girl from Clarks Town, Trelawny, walks away happy and contented with a race well run,” VCB said in her post, indicating that a career as a mother, entrepreneur and motivational speaker awaits.

In response, Fraser-Pryce, who like VCB is a two-time Olympic champion, thanked the track and field icon, who has helped pave the way for so many other Jamaican women.

“Thanks for leading the way @VCampbellBrown!! Carrying the torch and continuing the legacy for Jamaica,” the Pocket Rocket tweeted Wednesday.

Fraser-Pryce was a member of Jamaica’s team to the 2007 World Championships in Osaka, Japan where she was a relay alternate. However, the following year, VCB effectively passed the torch to Fraser-Pryce when the latter booked her place on Jamaica’s team to the Beijing Olympics, by finishing second at the national championships in Kingston, clocking 10.82.

VCB was fourth in 10.88.

Since then, Frater Pryce has been Jamaica’s leading female sprinter winning Olympic 100m titles in 2008 and 2012 as well as four World titles in the 100m.

The former St Jago High School star athlete won the 400 title at the 2013 World U18 Championships in Donetsk, Ukraine in 45.89. He won another gold medal as a member of Jamaica’s medley relay team that clocked 1:49.23.

Just over a year later, he ran 46.31 to win gold in the 400m at the Youth Olympics in Nanjing, China.

However, injuries have prevented Manley from fulfilling his potential and following in the footsteps of his former coach Bertland Cameron and others like Gregory Haughton, Davian Clarke and indeed the icons of the 1948 and 1952 Olympics, Herb McKenley and George Rhoden.

“Today is a difficult day for me, but it is also a day of reflection and gratitude. Representing my country, Jamaica has been a tremendous honour. During my nine years as a track and field athlete, I’ve always pursued success while preparing and training with the highest standards of competition, perseverance and passion,” Manley posted on Instagram on Thursday evening.

“With much sadness but without regret, I realize that due to recurring injuries, I am no longer able to train and perform at the level track and field demands. I say this with a heavy heart. I am retiring from track and field.

“This decision was tough, and although I know this will not bring me happiness, I believe it is the right action to take at this time in my life. I cherished every moment of my track and field career and it has been such a blessing to represent my country. I anxiously look forward to the next chapter of my life but this time with the sole focus of developing my new career path.”

Manley showed glimpses of what was possible when as a member of Jamaica’s 4x400m relay team at the World U20 Championships that won a bronze medal in 3:04.47.

He was also a member of Jamaica’s 4x400m team that won the bronze medal in the 4x400m relay at the World Relays in the Bahamas in April 2017.

 The two-time World Championship 4x400m relay silver medalist has reportedly informed the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association of his decision and has also requested to be removed from the Registered Testing Pool (RTP) with the Jamaica Anti-Doping Commission (JADCO). Marie Tavares, Executive Board Member of the JAAA confirmed Bloomfield’s retirement on Thursday, saying “He has. I got confirmation yesterday, either yesterday of the day before.”

Tavares opined that it sounds as if Bloomfield, a former Kingston College star, will be concentrating on his academics but was otherwise uncertain about his motivations.

Bloomfield, who holds the distinction of being the second-fastest Jamaican ever over 400m with a personal best of 43.94 seconds, first burst onto the scene as a promising young talent. He became the first Jamaican schoolboy to break the 45-second barrier, a feat that heralded a bright future in athletics. However, his career trajectory was hindered by a series of prolonged injuries and personal challenges, including the emotional toll of his mother's death in 2021.

After a standout collegiate career at Auburn University, where he set his remarkable 400m time at the NCAA National Outdoor Championships in 2018, Bloomfield signed with Puma and joined the MVP International training group in Florida. His talent and potential were on full display at the 2019 World Athletics Championships, where he finished eighth in the 400m final with a time of 45.36 seconds.

In 2021, seeking a fresh start and recovery from a debilitating hamstring injury, Bloomfield moved to train with Rana Reider’s Tumbleweed group, where he reunited with high school rival and Calabar star athlete Christopher Taylor. Bloomfield declared himself fully recovered and expressed optimism about his future in the sport. “It was a really bad injury to my right hamstring. I did an intensive rehab process after I got injured. Even though I shut down my season I was still doing rehab. So, I can say for the most part, right now I’m 100 percent healthy,” he said in an interview with On Point.

Despite his determination, Bloomfield’s journey continued to be marked by transitions. In September 2022, he left Tumbleweed to train under former Jamaican Olympian Sanjay Ayre at Chase Athletics Track Club. However, he departed from Chase Athletics a year later, signaling the turbulence that characterized the latter part of his career.

Bloomfield’s last known competitive performance was at the Tom Jones Invitational in April 2023, where he ran 45.52 seconds to finish sixth. This race marked the end of a career that, despite its ups and downs, offered glimpses of what could have been.

The duo from Nottingham wrote their names in British sporting history at the 1984 Winter Games following their routine to Ravel’s Bolero at the Zetra Olympic Hall in Sarajevo.

Forty years on from their Valentine’s Day performance, they have returned to Sarajevo to celebrate the day with the city, where they confirmed they will embark on one last UK tour next year.

Reflecting on how their golden moment inspired more appreciation of ice skating, Dean told the PA news agency: “That was really a launching pad of then going off to do other things.

“Touring around the world, skating in front of hundreds of thousands of people and then Dancing On Ice starting up because of winning the Olympics.”

Olympic glory followed a sustained period of success at the World, European and British Championships during the early part of the 1980s.

As they took to ice at the 1984 Winter Games, they did not skate for the first 20 seconds of their routine – in order to comply with Olympic rules – before they burst into life.

With intense passion and intensity on display, the finale saw the athletes collapse on the ice and lay motionless in each other’s arms, sparking a standing ovation inside the arena and perfect scores of 6.0 were awarded from the 12 judges.

Recalling the day, Torvill, 66, revealed they had not had many opportunities to practise the routine in the arena before the final but were given a 6am slot on the day which no other competitors in their training group turned up for due to the performance being that evening.

Dean, 65, said after they performed the routine, they heard a “ripple of applause all around the gods of the building” from the cleaners, a memory from the day which has stuck with them.

He recalled: “When you think about the whole day, nobody was there, and then as the day goes on, people start to fill the building and the competition happens and it gets to a climax and the gold medals are awarded.

“Then the people start to disappear and then you’re just left with how it was in the morning, we’re almost closing the door on the day.”

He also revealed that the Princess Royal waited for them in the Olympic village with Champagne to celebrate despite them not arriving until late after being held up by the Olympic doping checks after the performance.

Torvill and Dean turned professional after their Bolero performance but competed in the 1994 Winter Olympics, where they won bronze before retiring from competition.

They later branched out into touring, coaching and choreographing before becoming the faces of ITV’s Dancing On Ice, which ran from 2006 until 2014, and later becoming head judges on the show when it was revived in 2018.

The duo will now retire from dancing together following their upcoming tour – Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance – which will run from April 12 to May 11, 2025.

The shows, including dates in London, Belfast, Newcastle and Glasgow, will celebrate 50 years since they formed their skating partnership in 1975.

Reflecting on the decision to draw things to a close, Dean said: “I think there comes a time when you know.

“We’re not spring chickens any more. We’re still able to do it to a certain degree that we feel good about it, but that will go.

“So I think this is the right time for us to be able to do that and go and skate and do some of the old routines, be very nostalgic, but then do some new fun, upbeat (dances) with friends of ours from the skating world and from Dancing On Ice.

“We’re looking at it as a celebration.”

Among those they have inspired is British ice skating number one Lewis Gibson, who has previously said he started skating after watching Dancing On Ice, and his ice skating partner Lilah Fear.

Torvill is sure they will get a medal at the next Winter Olympics in 2026, and hopes it will be a gold one, which will pump more money into the sport in the UK.

“You really need to build into the infrastructure at a very early age and that’s where the funding needs to be, is to support young skaters and staying with them, developing them all the way through”, Dean added.

:: ‘Torvill & Dean: Our Last Dance’ will travel across the UK from April 12 to May 11 2025, with tickets on sale from February 14 at TorvillandDean.com

“As I take off my spikes never to put them on again, this girl from Clarks Town, Trelawny, walks away happy and contented with a race well run,” the two-time Olympic 200m champion and one of the most decorated female athletes in history, posted on Instagram earlier today.

As a junior, the now 39-year-old Campbell-Brown won gold medals for Jamaica in the 100m and 4x100m relay at the inaugural World U18 Championships in Bydgoszcz. The following year, she won the sprint double at the World U20 champions and with the performance, the hearts of her fellow Jamaicans.

Also, among the 27 gold medals she has won during an outstanding junior and senior career, VCB, as she was affectionately known to her millions of adoring fans, became to the first Jamaican woman to win a 100m world title when in Osaka, Japan. It was only one of three gold, seven silver and a bronze medal she would win at those championships to go along with three Olympic gold medals, three silver and two bronze medals.

She also won two gold medals at the World Indoor Championships.

“As I climbed, I passed the rung of hurt, that of injuries and rejection, not to mention tears. However, they quenched my aspiration to grasp the fruits of success and satisfaction. For that I must venture to say that I am proud and grateful,” she said in her farewell message.

“I want to thank the persons and companies who contributed to my success; my family, especially my husband Omar Brown who in the latter years served as my coach. I must mention friends, fans and supporters, sponsors, coaches and my agent @ontrackmgmt. I could not have done it without your help and support. Thank you from the bottom of my heart.”

VCB, who gave birth to a daughter, Avianna, two years ago, did not indicate why she decided to retire at this particular point in time.

She competed in eight 100m races this season, the last at the NACAC New Life Invitational in Miramar, Florida where she ran her fastest time of the season, 11.20 to finish fifth.

The suspension arose from James-Rose missing out-of-competition tests within a 12-month period, leading to a violation of anti-doping regulations. However, the circumstances surrounding the missed tests are deeply personal and tied to her pregnancy, which required urgent medical attention during the times when doping control officers attempted to conduct tests.

The 27-year-old James-Rose was four months’ pregnant when she missed two of her three tests in June 2023.

In a candid interview, she took responsibility for not updating the World Anti-Doping Agency's Administration and Management System (ADAMS) with her whereabouts, attributing her oversight to the urgent health concerns related to her pregnancy. Reflecting on the challenging period, she emphasized her primary focus on ensuring her own well-being and that of her unborn child.

“I found myself in a situation where I had to be making trips to neighbouring states for emergency visits because of my pregnancy and, unfortunately, it happened on the two times when I was there. My husband’s father was here when they knocked on the door and I wasn’t here. It was like ‘why did it have to happen on the two days that I did a morning visit and not on Sunday or something like that,” she told Sportsmax.TV.

“Maybe they (AIU) said that I should have written a letter saying I was pregnant but in the moment, in the situation I wasn’t really thinking about track and field, I was thinking about my life and my child. It was my first pregnancy, I wanted to make sure I was okay, I wanted to make sure I was at those appointments because I was having one of those scary type of pregnancies. When things started to feel a little bit better about the pregnancy about August/September it had already gone bad.”

Her son was born in December 2023.

James-Rose, the 2016 World U20 400 champion, revealed the difficulties she encountered with immigration processes upon relocating to the United States, which coincided with her pregnancy. The unforeseen challenges delayed her return to competitive training and contributed to the administrative oversight that led to the whereabouts violation.

 “Before the pregnancy at the end of the 2022 season, I was in Oregon and shortly after that my husband (Jamari) filed for me so the migration process was taking place and, unfortunately, I had some problems with my documentation and when I arrived in the United States I was unable to travel so that was the first problem for me.

“I arrived in the United States at the end of August to sort out that and I was unable to travel until March the following year. During that time, I was working out, with the hope of going back to join the group at GC Foster. I was communicating with them. I was actively training at that time. When I was able to travel again I did visit Jamaica immediately and that was when I found out I was pregnant.”

Despite expressing a deep love for track and field, James-Rose is relishing the joys of motherhood and is uncertain about her future in competitive athletics. She is committed to making a decision about her career by the end of the current season, acknowledging the importance of mental and physical preparation regardless of her competitive status.

"I think I will have to make that decision by the end of this season (2024), because even though I can't compete, I want to get my mind and body ready," James-Rose stated.

“I can’t really say for sure. I am extremely happy. I am loving it (motherhood). Track and field is my first love but I think I have found true love and right now I am just living in the moment of motherhood and just enjoying the moments with my son and my husband for now. I mean, the suspension ends in November of 2025 so time will tell, I don’t know for sure what my decision will be.

“It’s (track and field) something I would love my son to grow and see me doing so it’s definitely a decision to be made.”

The determination to return to competitive athletics hinges on her motivation and drive, factors that James-Rose will assess carefully as she navigates this pivotal juncture in her career.

As James-Rose contemplates her future, her ultimate wish is for her son to witness her accomplishments in track and field. However, she remains grounded in the present, prioritizing her role as a mother while keeping the door open to a potential return to competitive sport.