A serious injury will deprive the Paris Olympics of one of the most anticipated stars, the Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah, dominator of the 100 and 200 meters in the last two editions of the games, in Rio and Tokyo.
It will be a sad 32nd birthday tomorrow for the Caribbean champion, an icon of world athletics, who due to an injury to her Achilles tendon had to give up the trials in her country, which starts today, and dedicate herself to treatment.
“I am hurt and devastated by the idea of missing the Olympics this year, but in the end it is a matter of sport and my health comes first,” the Jamaican wrote on social media. The sprinter had already given up taking part in the 200m race in Paris and so was only entered in the 100m for the Olympic selections in Kingston, but in the meantime she has not recovered from the injury suffered at the beginning of June in a 100m race in New York, when she had come last and had to be carried off the track by hand, with an eloquent grimace on her face. Only today did you explain that you immediately realized the severity of your injury and that the tests you underwent revealed a “small tear” in your Achilles tendon
“I returned home with the firm intention of continuing to push and prepare for the national trials, to have another chance to participate in my third Olympic Games, but my leg wouldn’t allow me to do so.” Despite this, Thompson-Herah doesn’t want to give up: “It’s a long road, but I’m ready to start over, keep working, fully recover and get back to my career on the slopes,” she wrote. Champion of everything at the Olympics, but never gold in the individual sprint at the World Championships, the Jamaican boasts a personal best in the 100 meters of 10.54 seconds, set in 2021, the second fastest time in history, just behind the world record of 10, 49 seconds set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.
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