Five-time Olympic champion, notably in the 100m and 200m, Jamaican star Elaine Thompson-Herah was forced to withdraw from the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
She will be one of the major absentees in the capital. Double gold medalist in Rio in 2016 (100m and 200m) and triple gold medalist five years later in Tokyo (100, 200m, 4x100m), Elaine Thompson-Herah (31) was forced to withdraw from the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris. The Jamaican sprint star suffers from an Achilles tendon injury and will not be able to line up on the track at the Stade de France.
“I’m hurt and devastated to miss the Olympics this year, but at the end of the day it’s about sport and my health comes first,” she wrote in a statement posted on social media. During her last appearance, at the beginning of the month in New York (United States), Elaine Thompson-Herah crossed the finish line of the 100m with a time far from her usual standards (11’48”) and the Nigerian Favor Ofili, who won in 11’18”.
She had to be carried by two people to leave the track, grimacing with pain. “I sat on the ground because I couldn’t put any pressure on my leg while I was being carried off the track,” she said. If the examinations carried out revealed a “small tear” of the Achilles tendon, she had hope of qualifying and going to Paris. “But my leg wouldn’t allow me,” she confided.
And at 31, Elaine Thompson-Herah, who holds the 2nd fastest time in history (10’54” in August 2021) behind the record set in 1988 by Florence Griffith-Joyner (10’49”) , has no intention of hanging up the tips. “It’s a long road, but I’m ready to start again, to continue working, to recover completely and to resume my career on the track,” she assured. With surely the objective of winning his first individual gold medal at the World Championships.
