Elaine Thompson

The next year at the Rio Olympics, she became the first woman since Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 to win 100 m and 200 m gold at the Olympics.

At the London Grand Prix on 25 July, Thompson won a non-scoring Diamond League 200 m race in 22.10 s, defeating Americans Tori Bowie and Candyce McGrone; the time was her new personal best and broke Merlene Ottey's meeting record from 1991.

At the Beijing World Championships, she won a silver medal, just 0.03 s behind Dafne Schippers of Netherlands.

Thompson's time of 21.66 s was faster than the previous championships record but 0.03s slower than Schippers.

Fellow Jamaican Veronica Campbell Brown was third in 21.97 s.

Thompson kicked off her season indoors running multiple 60m races.

Elaine Thompson-Herah (born June 28, 1992) is a Jamaican sprinter who competes in the 60 metres, 100 metres and 200 metres.

Regarded as one of the greatest sprinters of all time, she is a five-time Olympic champion, the fastest woman alive in the 100 m, and the third fastest alive in the 200 m.

Running for Christiana High School and later Manchester High School, she was a good but not outstanding scholastic sprinter; her best result at the Jamaican ISSA Grace Kennedy Boys and Girls Championships came in 2009, when she placed fourth in the Class Two 100 metres in 12.01 seconds.

In 2011, her final year at Manchester High, she was left off the track team for disciplinary reasons.

After high school, Thompson was recruited to the University of Technology, Jamaica by Paul Francis, brother of MVP Track Club head coach Stephen Francis.

With MVP coaching, her times started improving steadily.

In 2013, she clocked a seasonal best of 11.41s at the Gibson Replays and placed second behind Carrie Russell at the Jamaican Intercollegiate Championships.

At the Central American and Caribbean Championships in Morelia, she won gold in the 4 × 100 metres relay, running the first leg on the Jamaican team as it won in 43.58s.

In 2014, Thompson won her first intercollegiate title, placed fifth in 11.26 s at the national championships, and had a seasonal best of 11.17 s. She represented Jamaica at the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, running in the 4 × 100 metres relay heats; Jamaica won their heat in 42.44 s, and went on to win gold in the final with Thompson-Herah not in the line-up.

A six-time Olympic medallist, she rose to prominence at the 2015 World Athletics Championships, winning silver in the 200 m and, at the time, becoming the fifth fastest woman in history over the distance.

Thompson made her international breakthrough in 2015.

She repeated as Jamaican intercollegiate champion in March and broke 11 seconds for the first time at the UTech Classic on 11 April, running a world-leading 10.92 s. She ran 10.97 s at the Jamaica International Invitational in Kingston, defeating a field that included Blessing Okagbare and Allyson Felix.

At the Pre Classic in Eugene, she was narrowly beaten by English Gardner in the B-race as both were timed in 10.84 s; as of 27 July 2015, this was Thompson's personal best in the 100m and ranked her 30th on the world all-time list.

She was expected to run the 100 metres at the Jamaican National Championships, which doubled as trials for the 2015 World Championships in Beijing; however, her coach Stephen Francis pulled her from that event and instead had her concentrate on the 200 metres, in which she had set a personal best of 22.37 s in May.

The move generated controversy in Jamaica; Francis stated that Thompson was not ready to double and that she had been prepared for the 200 m in which her main weakness, the start, would not play as large a role.

She won the national 200m title in 22.51s, qualifying for the World Championships.

Thompson-Herah is the first ever female sprinter, and the second sprinter after Usain Bolt, to win the "sprint double" at consecutive Olympics, capturing 100 m and 200 m gold at the 2016 Rio Olympics, and defending both titles at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics.

At the 2016 IAAF World Indoor Championships she would go on to win a bronze medal in the 60m final.

She would end her indoor season with a 60m personal best of 7.04 seconds.

On 1 July, she set a personal best in the 100 m with a time of 10.70 s (tying the Jamaican national record held by Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce) winning the event at the Jamaican Championships.

She did not advance to the semifinals in the 200 m running only a 23.34 s. However, Thompson was given a medical exemption in the 200m which gave her the opportunity to chase the double in Rio.

In the 100m final of the 2016 Olympic Games in Rio de Janeiro, Thompson won the gold medal with a time of 10.71 s, ahead of Tori Bowie (10.83 s), and the 2008 Beijing Olympics and 2012 London Olympics winner, fellow Jamaican, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (10.86 s).

In the 200m final, she won her second gold, clocking 21.78 s; Dafne Schippers placed second in 21.88 s and Tori Bowie third in 22.15 s.

She was the first female Jamaican sprinter to win the 100 m and 200 m at one Olympic Games and the seventh overall.

She also ran in the national 4 × 100 m relay team which placed second, thus leaving Rio de Janeiro with three medals.

In this season, Thompson took her first Diamond League title (100 m) winning four 100 m races, one 200 m race and also a relay race.

After the Rio Olympics, Thompson-Herah was plagued by an Achilles tendon injury, which affected her performance at the 2017 World Athletics Championships and the 2019 World Athletics Championships.

However, she returned to the top of athletics at the Tokyo Olympics, retaining her 100 m title in a new Olympic record of 10.61 s, and her 200 m title in a new personal best and national record of 21.53 s. After winning a third gold medal in the 4 × 100 m relay, she became the third sprinter after Griffith-Joyner and Bolt to complete an Olympic sprinting triple.

At the 2021 Prefontaine Classic, Thompson-Herah set another 100 m personal best, Jamaican and Diamond League record of 10.54 s, becoming the first woman to break the 40 km/h barrier, then ran times of 10.64 s and 10.65 s. For her season she was voted Laureus Sportswoman of the Year, and World Athletics World Female Athlete of the Year.

On the 18th February, Thompson lined up for the 60 m at Birmingham Indoor Grand Prix, the final meeting of the 2017 IAAF World Indoor Tour.

She would go on to run a personal best of 6.98 s, making her the tied seventh fastest woman and one of eight to break the 7 second barrier over the distance at the time.

One of the most dominant sprinters in the world, she is the 100 m 2019 Pan American Games champion and a three-time Diamond League winner.

In 2022, retired American sprinter Michael Johnson called Thompson-Herah and her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce the two greatest female sprinters of all time.

Thompson is a native of Banana Ground in Manchester Parish, Jamaica.