Jamaican Elaine Thompson-Herah, a five-time Olympic champion, won the women’s 100-meter competition in Switzerland, at a World Athletics Continental Tour Silver competition, running the distance in 10.92 seconds for the best time of the season.
Olympic Sprint Double Titles
Thompson-Herah is the holder of back-to-back sprint double titles, winning at the 2016 and 2020 Olympic Games in Rio and Tokyo, respectively. She also has the title of the fastest Jamaican woman in history, running the 100 meters in a record time of 10.54 seconds in 2021. She has been coping with an injury to her Achilles tendon for almost five years and is using competitive events as part of her recovery strategy. She had not run since the Jamaica Trials on 6 – 9 July 2023, and stated she was happy with her victory and her season’s best time in Switzerland. She added that she wants to continue running races during the current season.
Thompson-Herah’s 2023 Season Performances
31- year-old Thompson-Herah won a silver medal with the Jamaican 4×100-meter relay team at the World Athletics Championships in Budapest, Hungary, running the second leg of the race in 9.90 seconds as part of her mission to regain her championship form. She is working on a positive trend sparked by her third-place finish at the 2023 Zurich Diamond League with a time of 11.00 seconds. Although she has been plagued by injuries during the season, she continues to find her way back to top performance levels and successfully matched the world’s 11th-fastest time for 2023.
Athletic Achievements
Thompson-Herah, who is from Banana Ground in Jamaica’s Manchester Parish, specializes in the 60-meter, 100-meter, and 200-meter distances, and is considered one of the top sprinters of all time. She is the first female sprinter and just the second after fellow Jamaican Usain Bolt to win sprint doubles at consecutive Olympic Games. She is a six-time Olympic medal winner and is the first woman since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 to take gold in both the 100-meter and 200-meter events at the Olympics. In 2021, she was named Laureus Sportswoman of the Year and the World Athletics World Female Athlete of the Year. She competed for Christiana and Manchester High Schools and in 2009, placed fourth in the Class 2 100-meter races at the Jamaican ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships with a time of 12.01 seconds.
