Tia Clayton: Jamaica's next big star opens up to Asafa Powell over Paris Olympics nervousness

Rising Jamaican sprint star Tia Clayton opened up to legendary track icon Asafa Powell on the nervousness of competing at the Paris Olympics and being the country's only women's 100m finalist at the Games.

In an exclusive interview with Powell alongside her twin sister Tina Clayton, the 20-year-old disclosed it was a nervous moment which also gave her the experience she needed.

"The Olympics was very nerve-wracking for me, but it was good to get the experience...At the Olympics, I was very nervous, especially when I realised that the rain would start falling and I don't like running in the rain."

Tia Clayton finished second in the 100m at the 2024 Jamaican Athletics Championships in a time of 10.90s (-0.3 m/s wind) behind Shericka Jackson (10.84s) and ahead of Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.94 s) to book her spot on the Jamaican team to the Paris Olympics.

This was after running a new Personal Best (PB) of 10.86s to win her semi-final a couple of hours beforehand (beating her PB of 11.02s she had set the day before in the heats).

At the Paris Olympics, she clocked a brilliant time of 10.89s in the semifinal to make the final and become Jamaica's only women's 100m finalist. Sadly, she couldn't replicate the same or better performance in the final as she settled for seventh in 11.04s.

Clayton already began her 2025 season on an impressive note, marking her indoor debut with a convincing 60m victory at the World Athletics Indoor Tour Gold meeting in Astana, by blazing to a new meeting record of 7.18s ahead of her twin sister Tina, who settled for third in 7.39s behind Portugal's Lorene Bazolo in 7.36s.

The talented speedster also recently won the event in a windy 7.02s (+2.6m/s) at the Gibson McCook Relays in Kingston and will be gearing for her first senior medal at the World Indoor Championships in Nanjing later this month.