Stars of 2022: Shericka Jackson

We knew Shericka Jackson was good. When she began her Wanda Diamond League campaign in the spring, the 28-year-old Jamaican sprinter already had an Olympic bronze medal in the 100m and was a two-time world champion in the 4x400m. 

Yet in 2022, Jackson proved beyond all reasonable doubt that she belongs to the best of a golden generation of female sprinters in Jamaica. Four Diamond League victories, a World Championship gold medal and a first ever Diamond Trophy have cemented her status as one of the all-time greats of athletics’ premier one-day series.

Jackson had only three career victories to her name on the Diamond League circuit at the beginning of 2022 – in the 200m in Paris in 2018, the 400m in London a year later and another 200m win in Stockholm in 2021. 

She began her season in familiar fashion: with a string of podium finishes but without a win. Having clocked 22.07 to finish behind the USA’s Gabrielle Thomas in the 200m in Doha, she second and third in the 100m in Birmingham and Eugene respectively. It wasn’t until the Pietro Mennea Golden Gala in Rome that the 28-year-old dropped the first hint at what a special season 2022 would turn out to be. 

Ahead of the race in the Stadio Olimpico, much of the talk was about Jackson’s rivals. This, after all, was a field which included 100m Diamond League champion Elaine Thompson-Herah and four-time Diamond Trophy winner Shaunae Miller-Uibo, as well as British star Dina Asher-Smith and US legend Allyson Felix. 

Yet it was Jackson who stole the show, as she powered out of the bend and away from the rest of the field to cross line in a meeting record 21.91. As well as picking up a season’s best, Jackson had inflicted a first defeat of the season on her compatriot and Diamond Trophy favourite Thompson-Herah, and announced herself as one of the favourites for the year’s major titles.