Affected by the Achilles tendon, the Jamaican announced her withdrawal from the Paris Olympic Games on Wednesday.
France Télévisions – Sports Editorial
Published on 06/27/2024 4:49 p.m.
Reading time: 1 min Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson-Herah at the Commonwealth Games on August 6, 2022. (GLYN KIRK / AFP)
Earthquake for the Jamaican sprint one month before the Paris Olympic Games. Double Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m, Elaine Thompson-Herah, will not defend her titles this summer due to a torn Achilles tendon, as announced Wednesday June 26 on her social networks. “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.
The 31-year-old star, crowned Olympic champion five times, was injured during a race at the beginning of June in New York and will therefore not be able to participate in the formidable Jamaican selections, which begin Thursday in Kingston. She had already given up on participating in the half-lap in Paris and had initially only registered for 100m for these trials.
Not enough, however, to mark the end of her career, assured the 31-year-old sprinter when she had already failed to qualify individually for the world championships in Budapest last summer. “It’s a long road, but I’m ready to start again, keep working, make a full recovery and get back to my track career,” she added.
Jamaica nevertheless loses a huge chance of a medal in athletics. “ETH” became in 2021 in Tokyo the first woman to retain her Olympic titles in 100m and 200m after her double five years earlier in Rio. She also holds the second fastest time in history on the straight (10”54 in 2021) just behind world record holder Florence Griffith-Joyner (10”49 in 1988).
Without her, the Jamaican selections look even more open than expected after a start to the summer where the country’s stars – Shericka Jackson and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce – are struggling to exist behind the Americans, Sha’Carri Richardson in the lead.
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