Jamaica’s two-time Olympic women’s 100m and 200m champion Elaine Thompson-Herah will not defend her titles at next month’s Paris Games after failing to recover from an Achilles injury, the sprint star said on Wednesday. Thompson-Herah, who completed the 100m-200m gold medal double at both the 2016 and pandemic-delayed 2020 Olympics, confirmed her decision after pulling out of this week’s Jamaican trials.
“I am hurt and devastated to be missing the Olympics this year but at the end of the day it’s sports and my health comes first,” Thompson-Herah, 31, wrote in a statement on social media.