In 2016, Fearon was Great Britain’s fastest man over 100m, but bad timing meant he missed the Rio 2016 Olympics. He then quit sport briefly after the murder of his sister. Ten years on, he’s set for his third Winter Olympics, and first for Jamaica at Milano Cortina: “I would run Diamond Leagues in the daytime. In the evening, I’m off delivering my local pizzas, just whatever needed to be done.”
For months, Joel Fearon could not sleep.
In 2023, his sister Natasha Morais was murdered. Between dealing with the shock and grief, anxiety crept in and he began to fear for his own life.
The structure of training cycles, race calendars, startlist; all the things that had ordered his life for two decades no longer felt important.
“It was tough for all of us. We are all still dealing with it in our own ways,” he told the BBC.
“I really struggled with anxiety.
“I was becoming afraid to leave my family alone.”
“I didn’t think I was ever going to be able to do sport again. I really struggled.”
That was 2023, and Fearon thought he had come to the end of his elite sporting career that peaked in 2016.