Elaine Thompson-Herah

Elaine enrolled to the University of Technology in Jamaica after finishing high school, where she was recruited by Paul Francis. Paul helped Elaine improve her times so she could start breaking the 11.00s barrier. Her  first professional breakthrough occurred in 2013, when she won her first inter-collegiate 100m championship at the Jamaican Inter-Collegiate Championships. Elaine was a member of the national relay team that won the 4x100m title at the CAC Championships that year.

In 2015, she won the 100m title in 10.97 seconds at the Jamaican International Invitational. She qualified for the World Athletics Championships that year and won her first national championship in the 200 meters at the Jamaican Athletics Championships. She claimed the 100-meter national championship in 2018 and successfully defended it in the Jamaican Athletics Championships in 2019. With a personal best time of 10.70 seconds, Elaine Thompson holds the record for being the fourth-fastest woman in the world in the 100-meter race.

Elaine Thompson earned her international debut in 2014, when she helped Jamaica’s relay team win a gold medal in the 4x100m at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, Scotland. She  was a member of the relay team that won the 4x100m global championships the following year, as well as silver in the 200m individual at the World Athletics Championships. She  made her Olympic debut in 2016 and rose to prominence by becoming the first female Jamaican sprinter to win a gold medal double in the 100m and 200m at the Rio Olympics. In the 4x100m relay, she also assisted her team in capturing the silver medal.

Thompson won the 100 m and 200 m gold medals in the 2016 Rio Olympics and again at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, making her the first sprinter in history to do so. She is also the second sprinter, after Usain Bolt, to accomplish this feat. She has won six Olympic medals to date. In 2015, she gained fame in the World Athletics Championships by taking home silver in the 200 metre race. She won the 100 m and 200 m gold medals at the Olympics in Rio, becoming the first woman to do it since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988.

The net worth of the popular Jamaican sprinter Elaine Sandra-Lee Thompson Herah is estimated to be around $4 million. She has endorsement deals with Puma, Flawlessly Fabulous Hair, Flow, and National Commercial Bank Jamaica Limited.

Elaine Thompson Herah was born to Keith Thompson and Rose Richards on June 28 in 1992. She came from an impoverished family that lived in Banana Ground, one of Manchester Parish’s most destitute areas. Her father was a barber, while her mother was a housewife.  Elaine was raised by her grandmother.  She had followed her interest in athletics at a very early age. She attended Christina High School before transferring to Manchester High School. Elaine placed fourth in the 100 meters when competing for the latter team at the ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys’ and Girls’ Championships.