Jamaican Elite Athlete, Elaine Thompson-Herah has won the women’s 100 metres and 200m events at the Tokyo Olympics on Saturday.
Elaine Thompson-Herah had just broken a 33-year-old Olympic record to win the women’s 100 metres in 10.61 seconds and lead a historic Jamaican clean sweep of the podium alongside Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce and Shericka Jackson.
Elaine Thompson also won her 200m with an impressive time of 21.53 ahead of the Namibian Sprinter, Christine Mboma and Gabrielle Thomas.
It was time for a nation to rejoice.
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce took the silver and Shericka Jackson won the bronze medal to make it a clean sweep for Jamaica.
As Thompson-Herah celebrated retaining her Olympic title alone, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson stood some way apart from their compatriot. An age passed before they finally walked over to the winner and gave her no more than a cursory pat on the back.
The friction between Elaine Thompson-Herah and Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce was very obvious as the latter was obviously disappointed and reluctant at What was the issue between Fraser-Pryce, a double Olympic 100m champion who ran 10.74sec for silver, and Thompson-Herah, now also a double Olympic 100m champion?
Asked to describe their relationship afterwards, the two women sat awkwardly silent for almost 10 seconds before Fraser-Pryce finally answered: “I always have respect for my competitors. I believe that each athlete that gets up, works hard, they are dedicated.
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“I would definitely say that for Elaine and Shericka. I have the utmost respect for both ladies.”
It was an answer that shed little light on the obvious animosity. The pair shared a coach, Stephen Francis, for much of their careers and were once very close.
There is a suggestion that the elder stateswoman Fraser-Pryce, 34, grew unhappy with the level of respect shown by her younger rival to senior figures in the group. Sometimes it is just too difficult to have two top dogs in the same place.
After a brief split with Francis’s group in 2016 that lasted only a few months, Fraser-Pryce continued to train alongside Thompson-Herah, 29, until leaving permanently for a new group at the start of this year.
Their performances on Saturday night cemented their statuses as the greatest female sprinters of the 21st century. Elaine Thompson-Herrah’s winning time – a personal best – consigned the dubious Olympic record set by American Florence Griffith Joyner in 1988 to history despite the Jamaican celebrating a few metres from the finish line.
Having been expected to gain her customary early lead, Fraser-Pryce paid the price for a rare average start and was almost pipped on the line for silver by Jackson, who clocked 10.76sec.
Of her obvious unhappiness at being beaten, Fraser-Pryce said: “Have you ever lost anything? You’re definitely going to feel disappointed. That’s your first reaction.
“I didn’t run the race I wanted to run. You’re disappointed but it happened, you move on and you’re grateful for the opportunity.”
Amid talk of ‘super shoes’ and the newly relaid Tokyo track aiding fast times, Thompson-Herah insisted neither were a factor and her success was due to training alone.
Asked about breaking Griffith Joyner’s Olympic mark and the possibility of closing in on the American’s 10.49sec world record, Thompson-Herah said: “I didn’t have a time in my head. I was just trying to have the best race tonight.
“I wasn’t looking at any record or any time, but eventually those times will erase. Even if it takes five years, they will erase. A lot of women are coming up and rising, so to run this Olympic record sends out a warning that anything is possible.”
All three Jamaican medal winners go again next week in the 200m, which will be the last individual Olympic race of Fraser-Pryce’s career. She confirmed that next year would be her final season, competing at an Olympics for the first time since giving birth to her son in 2017.
In Dina Asher-Smith’s unexpected absence, Britain’s surprise representative was Daryll Neita, who was frustrated not to match her 10.96sec personal best from the heats as she finished last in 11.12sec.
“That wasn’t good,” she said. “I’m so disappointed. I’m not happy with that at all. That’s not what I came here to do.