Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herah breaks 100m Olympic record

Elaine Thompson-Herah won in an Olympic record time of 10.61 seconds, completing a Jamaican clean sweep of the podium at the Tokyo Games.

Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herah celebrates her gold medal; Credit: Twitter@WorldAthletics
By Karthik Raman | Jul 31, 2021 | 3 Min Read follow icon Follow Us

Elaine Thompson-Herah won her second consecutive Olympic gold medal on Saturday, cementing her place in history as one of the greatest 100m sprint queens. It was a Jamaican sweep of the podium at the Tokyo Olympic Stadium. The Jamaican sprint queen overcame a quality field, which includes two-time Olympic champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, racing to victory in an Olympic record time of 10.61 seconds. Fraser-Pryce had to settle for the silver medal, clocking 10.74, becoming the most decorated female 100m athlete at the Olympic Games. She has won seven Olympic medals in total, which includes two golds from Beijing 2008 and London 2012 in the same discipline. Shericka Jackson rounded off the podium finishing third with 10.76 for the Jamaican sweep.

Earlier, Shelly-Ann, who was the fastest qualifier sprinter, was the quickest to start in the final out of the eight women. She was neck-to-neck with Thompson-Herah at one point. However, Shelly-Ann was unable to get past her compatriot in the second half of the race. Thompson-Herah, the 2016 Rio Olympics champion, was unstoppable from there on, increasing her speed and creating a gap between the other runners that she could celebrate with her left arm even before crossing the finish line.

Elaine Thompson-Herah creates Olympic record

The Jamaican women confirmed their status as sprinting powerhouses by sweeping the podium for the second time since Beijing 2008. Despite the country’s magnificent showing, the night belonged to Elaine Thompson-Herah, who produced the fireworks on Saturday. In an intriguing battle, the world’s two fastest women were neck-and-neck halfway through the race, but Thompson-Herah’s top-end speed proved too much for her compatriot.

In the process, Thompson-Herah broke late American icon Florence Griffith Joyner’s 33-year-old Olympic record of 10.62 set in Seoul 1988. She is also the second Jamaican woman to defend her title in the event, after Shelly-Ann’s back-to-back wins in 2008 and 2012.

With that win, Jamaica’s domination in the event continued as they won the gold since the 2008 Beijing Olympics and finishing in the top three since the 1992 Barcelona Games. Thompson-Herah, who has not stepped onto a podium at a major championship since Rio 2016, came up with a performance to remember when it mattered the most.

‘I didn’t expect to run this fast’

The stage was perfectly set for a dream fast race with four of the women – on the starting line – clocking sub-10.80 seconds times in the semifinals. In the end, the 29-year-old Thompson-Herah celebrated before even crossing the line, pointing with her left arm. It later raised questions over whether she could have gone faster had she run hard for 100 meters.

“I didn’t see the time, but the pointing was just, I knew I had won, so I don’t know what it means other than to show I was clear (of the field),” Thompson-Herah was quoted as saying by the Olympics.com. “I could have gone faster if I wasn’t pointing and celebrating early. But that shows there is more in store, so hopefully, one day, I can unleash that time.”

“I believe in myself but I didn’t expect to run this fast, even though I felt great during the rounds. There was a lot of nerves but I said to myself, ‘you can do this, you’ve been here before, just execute it’.”