Quote · The Mel Robbins Podcast
If You Only Listen to One Podcast This Week, Make It This One
Where this was said
What Failure Teaches That Winning Never Could
At 52:45 · chapter starts 49:00
With Mel holding the 2019 World Championship gold medal, Shelly-Ann unpacks her philosophy of failure — beginning with the admission that she has lost a lot, and she is proud of her expertise in it [1] — Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce "Shelly-Ann fractured the sesamoid bones under her big toe before the 2016 Rio Olympics — the exact bones responsible for the explosive powe…" 50:00 . Failure, she explains, introduces you to parts of yourself that success actively conceals: the approach that needs to change, the muscle you haven't developed yet, the gap between what you did and what the moment required. Some of her greatest victories came directly after defeats. She then narrates the sesamoid injury crisis of 2016: unable to put her foot in her spike, out of practice for weeks before the Rio Olympics, still chasing the historic feat of three consecutive Olympic golds. Rather than quitting, she found another way — pool training, heavier gym work, careful rehab, working around the injury rather than through it. She took bronze in Rio. Then came back with two world titles and the Laureus Award in the following years. Failure told her how. She never quit.
Shelly-Ann fractured the sesamoid bones under her big toe before the 2016 Rio Olympics — the exact bones responsible for the explosive power sprinters need in the blocks. She couldn't train normally for weeks. Instead of quitting, she found another way: pool work, gym, rehab. She won bronze. Then came back and won the world title in 2019 and 2022.
In 2016, Shelly-Ann fractured the sesamoid bones under her big toe — critical for block power — yet still competed at the Rio Olympics and won bronze.
At age 35 in the 2022 season, Shelly-Ann ran 10.60 seconds or faster in the 100 meters six or seven times — an extraordinary level of consistency.
