Elaine Thompson Herah out of the Olympics with Achilles tear

There will be a new Olympic champion in the women’s 100m and 200m. Team Jamaica’s five-time Olympic gold medallist, Elaine Thompson-Herah, will sit out the Paris 2024 Olympics due to injury.

Thompson-Herah took to Instagram to share that she cannot run at the Jamaica Olympic Trials this weekend at the National Stadium in Kingston. The fastest woman alive over 100m confirmed she has a partially torn Achilles tendon following her race at the New York Grand Prix.

“I got back home with a strong mindset to keep pushing and prepare for my national trials. [To get] another shot of my third Olympics. But, the leg wouldn’t allow me to,” she said. “I am hurt and devastated to be missing the Olympics this year. But at the end of the day, it’s sports and my health comes first.”

 

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A post shared by Elaine Thompson-Herah (@fastelaine)

Medical personnel carried Thompson-Herah off the track in New York after she pulled up and finished last in the race. Reports surfaced that Thompson-Herah only entered to run the women’s 100m at the Olympic trials due to her injury. However, Thompson-Herah’s withdrawal opens the door for several contenders to dethrone her in the women’s 100m and 200m in Paris. These contenders include Shericka Jackson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, Sha’Carri Richardson, Gabby Thomas and Marie-Josee Ta Lou.

Elaine Thompson-Herah won the women’s 100m and 200m at the Rio 2016 and Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games, breaking the 100m Olympics record in the latter. She also won the women’s 4×100 m with Jackson, Fraser-Pryce and Briana Williams in Tokyo.