Five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah has been ruled out of the Paris Games due to an Achilles injury

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

The Jamaican sprinter, a two-time defending champion in both the 100 and 200 metres, said scans showed she had suffered a “small tear in my Achilles tendon” after competing in the New York Grand Prix earlier this month. As a result, she will not attend next month’s Games.

“It’s a long road, but I’m ready to start over and keep working and 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 about sport and my health comes first.

“I will certainly watch from the stands with hope and cheer on my country Jamaica.”

Thompson-Herah exploded onto the athletics scene in 2016 when, then 24 years old, she won gold in both the 100 meters and 200 meters 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 in 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 (a new Olympic record of 10.61 seconds in the 100 meters) and won gold at the 4×100 meters. relay with Jamaica.

However, this season she again struggled with injuries.

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Thompson-Herah – who turns 32 on Friday – finished last in 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.

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

“Funnily enough, I came home with a strong mentality to keep pushing and preparing for my national trails, another shot from my third Olympic Games, but the stage didn’t allow for that.”

The women’s 100 meters race in Paris starts on Friday, August 2 and ends a day later. The 200 meters starts on Sunday, August 4 and the final on Tuesday, August 6.