Elaine Thompson-Herah explains how her hope of defending her Olympic titles in France went up in smoke because of a nagging injury.
Fastest woman alive Elaine Thompson-Herah will forever curse 2024 because of her failure to defend the Olympic 100 and 200-meter titles.
Thompson’s life-long dream of joining compatriot Usain Bolt’s league of winning three consecutive Olympic titles in the specialty, was dealt a fatal blow after she was forced to withdraw from the Jamaican Olympic Trials in June 2024 because of a nagging injury.
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Thompson-Herah’s troubles began during her last race at the New York Grand Prix in early June and she had hoped that an Achilles tendon injury would heal in time for her to run during the trials but ended up missing it altogether.
Thompson-Herrah returned home from the Grand Prix in the hope that the injury wasn’t as severe as she feared but it didn’t take long before her nightmare was sealed. Expressing her regret, she posted on her Instagram: “I got back home with a strong mindset to keep pushing and prepare for my national trials … but the leg wouldn’t allow me to.”
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The thought of missing out the spotlight at the global stage was unimaginable for Thompson-Herah, who not only cursed her participation in the New York Grand Prix but let her feelings known that all was not well.
“It’s never fun sharing news like this but at the New York Grand Prix, I felt something in the race and still insisted on pushing, a couple steps to the line I realised something is really wrong.”
On several occasions, she has said she is hurt and devastated to miss the Olympics, but that her health comes first. Thompson-Herah will start over again in 2025 after making a full recovery and will hope to get her career back on track to continue her dominance.
Thompson-Herah, the five-time Olympic gold medallist, has been training in the USA. Thompson-Herah rose to prominence at the 2015 World Athletics Championships, winning silver in the 200m and, at the time, becoming the fifth fastest woman in history over the distance.
The next year at the Rio Olympics, she became the first woman since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 to win 100m and 200m gold at the Olympics before repeating her feat in Tokyo.
