Asafa Powell had spent years proving Stephen Francis right. But at the coach’s memorial ceremony, remembering him proved far harder than breaking any record.
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The former 100m world-record holder fought back tears as he recalled the man who changed the course of his life – from a young sprinter with no clear path to an Olympic champion.
At a ceremony in Kingston honoring the legendary Jamaican coach, Asafa Powell was joined by several other track stars, including Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, and more.
During the ceremony, Powell tried to put more than two decades of memories into words. But when he reached the part about the man who believed in him before he believed in himself, the former world-record holder could no longer hold back his tears.
Powell’s tribute was deeply personal. He recalled being a young sprinter from the countryside whose career seemed uncertain after a false start ended his high-school championship final in 2001. Then Paul Francis came to his school and offered him an opportunity at UTech.
“I had no idea what UTech was,” Powell admitted. But taking that chance eventually led him to Stephen Francis… and changed his life forever. From there, Powell found more than a coach at MVP Track & Field Club. He found a family. “What kept me there wasn’t the building; it was the family that the coach created,” Powell said. Francis studied races with his athletes, stopped footage, and picked apart the smallest details. He demanded more, but he also made them believe that more was possible.
Powell remembered one conversation in particular. Francis once told him he would break the world record. “I laughed,” Powell recalled. “Honestly, I thought he believed in me more than I believed in myself.”
Years later, Powell did exactly that. He broke the 100m world record in Athens in 2005, running 9.77 seconds. He would lower it again to 9.74 in 2007.
“When I broke the world record it wasn’t just my achievement, it was coach’s vision coming alive,” Powell said. “It made the world look at Jamaica differently.”
And perhaps that was the heart of Francis’ work.
According to him, his coach was not simply producing fast runners. He was trying to prove that Jamaican athletes could reach the very top while training at home, under Jamaican coaches and within Jamaican systems.
Francis co-founded MVP in Kingston in 1999 after leaving a career in finance. Over the years, the club became a breeding ground for champions, with Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Elaine Thompson-Herah, Shericka Jackson and Powell among the stars shaped by his influence.
Powell’s own career became a reflection of that vision. He set two 100m world records, broke 10 seconds more than any other sprinter at the time, and eventually won Olympic gold as part of Jamaica’s 4x100m relay team at Rio 2016.
Yet when Powell stood before Francis’ family, friends, and former athletes, none of those achievements seemed to matter as much as the relationship behind them. “Coach became more than just a coach. He was another father,” Powell added. Then came the moment that silenced the room.
“Everything I became started with one man who saw something in a young…” Powell began, before his voice broke and the tears came. He could not finish the sentence. Brigitte Foster-Hylton stood beside him throughout the speech, and later on she helped him complete his heartfelt tribute to the coach.
It was a fittingly human moment in a ceremony celebrating a man whose influence stretched far beyond stopwatches and medals. Before Powell, several others had also shared their memories with this legendary coach.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s tribute to Stephen ‘Franno’ Francis
Francis died on July 4 at the age of 64. His death brought tributes from across Jamaican athletics, including Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Elaine Thompson-Herah. Fraser-Pryce, whom Francis helped guide to her first Olympic title at Beijing 2008, remembered him as much more than a coach.
“He was not only my coach but a steady source of guidance during some of the most defining moments of my career,” she wrote. Thompson-Herah, meanwhile, thanked Francis for “paving the way,” calling him “the greatest to ever do it.”
Francis’ contribution was also recognized beyond the track. He received Jamaica’s Order of Jamaica in 2017 for his work in athletics.
But perhaps his greatest legacy was captured by Powell through tears. Francis had once seen something in a young sprinter that nobody else could see. Powell went on to become a world-record holder and Olympic champion.
And now, years later, the champion was standing before his coach’s memory, still sounding like that young boy who simply took a chance. “Thank you for believing in me before the world did,” Powell had written after Francis’ death.
At the ceremony, he could barely say goodbye.
