Repeat Olympic Games sprint double champion Elaine Thompson-Herah has been named Female Athlete of the Year by the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association (NACAC), it was announced on Monday.
Ryan Crouser of the US who set world records in the indoor and outdoor shot put was named the Male Athlete of the Year.
The award was expected after the Jamaican ace sprinter dominated world sprinting at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan, where she won three gold medals, and then totally annihilated rivals afterwards to end the year as the undisputed queen of sprinting and the fastest woman alive.
The Jamaican successfully defended her sprint double honours by lifting the 100m in an Olympic Games record 10.61 seconds, before capturing the 200m crown in 21.53 seconds. She later won a third gold medal as a member of the 4x100m relay team.
In a release from NACAC, it started that Thompson-Herah’s “2021 season will go down in history, as she produced one of the greatest runs of excellence of all time. Within the span of just over three weeks, between the end of July and late August, she won two individual gold medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan. Her 100m win came in an Olympic record time of 10.61, while her 200m victory four days thence yielded a national record time of 21.53 seconds.
“Shortly after her double Olympic triumph, which she topped off by winning the sprint relay with Jamaica, Thompson-Herah lined up at the Prefontaine Classic, in Hayward Field, Eugene, Oregon, USA. She stamped her class with a run of 10.54 seconds, a new national record, and – like her 200m Olympic win – the fastest time in the world since Florence Griffith-Joyner’s World record in 1988.”
L. Bronson
