When Elaine Thompson-Herah is at her best, not many sprinters can deny her.
But the problem is that with the exception of the 2016 and 2021 Olympic Games, she remains top class, but not unbeatable due to a perennial Achilles injury.
Thompson-Herah is a five-time Olympic Games champion, who has the distinction of being the only woman to have won the Olympic Games sprint double back to back in 2016 and the delayed 2021 edition.
She remains the fastest woman alive with her 10.54 seconds clocking in the 100m and the second fastest woman alive in the 200m with 21.53 seconds, only bettered by compatriot Shericka Jackson last month at the World Championships.
Thompson is a native of Banana Ground in Manchester Parish, Jamaica. 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 Class Two 100 meters in 12.01 seconds.
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 and the greatness began.
The six-time Olympic Games medalist came to prominence in 2015 at the World Championships when she finished second in the 200m
The following year she became the first woman since sprint world record holder Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988 to win the sprint double at the Olympics in Rio.
She repeated the feat at the Tokyo edition by claiming another sprint double, the 100m in an Olympic Games record of 10.61 seconds and the 200m in a personal best and then national record 21.53 seconds.
She then joined Griffith-Joyner and Usain Bolt as the only sprinters to have won the sprint double and the 4x100m relays at Olympic Games.
She was voted World Athletics Female Athlete of the Year 2021.
One of the most dominant sprinters in the world, she is the 100 m 2019 Pan American Games champion, the Commonwealth Champion and a three-time Diamond League winner.
