KINGSTON – Elaine Thompson-Herah, the two-time reigning Olympic champion at 100 and 200 meters, will miss the Paris Games because of what she said is a small tear in her Achilles tendon.
Thompson-Herah went down at the New York Grand Prix this month and had to be carried off the track. She had been signed up to run in the 100 meters this week at Jamaican national championships, but posted on social media Thursday that she withdrew.
“Funny enough, I got back home with a strong mindset to keep pushing and prepare,” she said. “But the leg wouldn’t allow me to.”
Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who won the Olympic 100 in 2008 and 2012, ran 10.98 seconds on Thursday in the opening round and Shericka Jackson ran 10.99.
Thompson-Herah had not been signed up for the 200. Her absence leaves America’s Sha’Carri Richardson, Fraser-Pryce and Jackson as the top three medal contenders in the shorter sprint in Paris.
Thompson-Herah, who turns 32 on Saturday, said she plans on returning.
“It’s a long road but I am willing to start over and keep working and to make full recovery and resume my track career,” she said. “I am hurt and devastated to be missing the Olympic this year but at the end of the day it’s sports and my health comes first.”
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