Why is Elaine Thompson-Herah not competing at the Paris Olympics 2024? All about the absence of the fastest woman alive from the Summer Games

By Soumik Bhattacharya

Modified Aug 02, 2024 14:50 GMT

The reigning Women's 100m and 200m Olympic champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah, is set to miss the Paris Olympics 2024 following an injury that she suffered at the New York City Grand Prix in June. Owing to this injury, she missed the Jamaican National Championships (Olympics qualifying tournament for Jamaican athletes) thus ruling her out of her third Olympics appearance.

Even after her injury at the NYC Grand Prix, the 32-year-old was hopeful of making it to the Women's 100m event at the Championships but failed after she discovered a tear in her Achilles tendon.

She announced her withdrawal from both the Jamaican National Championships and the Paris Olympics via her official Instagram handle. She wrote in the caption:

"It’s never fun sharing news like this. But at the New York Grand Prix I felt something in the race and still insist to push, couple steps to the line I realize something is really wrong. I went quickly to get some medical check up and to found out that I have a small tear on my Achilles tendon."

She added:

"Funny enough I got back home with a strong mindset to keep pushing and prepare for my national trails another shot of my third Olympics but the leg wouldn’t allow me to."

The 32-year-old started off her 2024 season at the Prefontaine Classic 2024 where she finished ninth in the Women's 100m event. She produced another ninth-place finish (women's 100m) at the NYC Grand Prix 2024, the event that led to her Achilles injury.

However, this isn't the first time Elaine Thompson-Herah has been deprived of major tournaments due to her Achilles injury. The Jamaican faced a similar sort of adversity due to this injury during the 2017 and 2019 World Championships (she missed the Women's 200m semis even after qualifying in the heats due to her Achilles tendon injury).

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All you need to know about the Olympic legacy of Elaine Thompson-Herah

Elaine Thompson-Herah (Image via: Getty Images)

So far in her career, Elaine Thompson-Herah has participated in two quadrennial events that have been immensely fruitful for the Jamaican. She made her first Olympic appearance in Rio 2016 where she clinched two gold medals in the Women's 100m and 200m events.

The Jamaican repeated the performance in Tokyo 2020 when she again clinched two golds in the 100m and 200m. This made her the first woman athlete to clinch double sprint gold medals in back-to-back Olympics.

Besides her four gold medals, Elaine Thompson-Herah also has a gold (2020) and silver (2016) in the 4x100m relay events.