Five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah ruled out of Paris Games due to Achilles tendon injury

CNN
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Five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah will miss the 2024 Paris Olympics due to an Achilles tendon injury, she announced on social media.

The Jamaican sprinter, two-time reigning Olympic champion in the 100m and 200m, said tests showed she suffered a “small tear in her Achilles tendon” after competing in the New York Grand Prix earlier this month and, therefore, that she would not participate in next month’s Games.

“It’s a long road but I’m ready to start again and continue working, make a full recovery and resume my track career,” the 31-year-old wrote. “I’m hurt and devastated to miss the Olympics this year, but at the end of the day it’s sport and my health comes first.

“I will definitely watch, with optimism, from the stands and cheer for my country, Jamaica.”

Thompson-Herah exploded onto the athletics scene in 2016 when, then aged 24, she won gold in the 100m and 200m at the Summer Games in Rio de Janeiro. In doing so, she became the first woman to complete the Olympic sprint double since Florence Griffith-Joyner at Seoul 1988.

After a few years of injury concerns, Thompson-Herah returned to the world stage at the 2021 Tokyo Games where she retained her two gold medals – setting a new Olympic record of 10.61 seconds in the 100m – as well as gold in the 4×100 m. relay with Jamaica.

However, she has suffered from injuries once again this season.

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Thompson-Herah – who turns 32 on Friday – finished last at the Prefontaine Classic last month with a time of 11:30, while one of her main rivals for Olympic gold, American Sha’Carri Richardson, finished first.

Then, at the New York Grand Prix in June, she finished last again with a time of 11.48. Afterward, she had to be carried off the track because she “couldn’t put any pressure on the leg.”

“It’s quite funny, I came home with every intention of continuing to push and prepare for my national trails for another chance at my third Olympics, but the stage wasn’t allowing me to do that.”

The women’s 100m competition in Paris begins on Friday, August 2 and ends one day later. The 200m begins on Sunday, August 4 and the final on Tuesday, August 6.