Elaine Thompson Herah out of World Athletics Championships

The Fastest Woman Alive’s chances of competing at the next IAAF World Athletics Championships are all but dead, as Elaine Thompson Herah won’t compete at the next edition of the event this fall in Tokyo.

Herah, a five-time Olympic champion sprinter, missed the late entry deadline on Thursday for athletes to submit their names to compete at the 2025 National Junior and Senior Championships, set to take place in the final weekend of June. Failure to submit her name makes Thompson Herah ineligible to compete at the world championships, which run from Sept. 13-21 in Japan’s capital. This marks the first time Thompson Herah will miss the major event since 2013. Neither Thompson nor her team have spoken out about her absence.

Thompson Herah has yet to make her 2025 season debut. The legendary sprinter tore her Achilles last summer during a meet in Hungary, causing her to miss the Paris 2024 Olympics.

Though the Olympics have long been Thompson Herah’s domain, she’s had considerably less individual success at the worlds. Thompson Herah won silver in the women’s 200m at Beijing 2015 and bronze in the women’s 100m at Eugene 2022.