Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson completes sprint double
By Brad Weiss
Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson won the gold medal in the 200m on Wednesday, completing the sprint double at the Rio Olympics.
For the first time since American Florence Griffith Joyner did it during the 1988 Seoul Olympics, a woman has completed the sprint double, winning gold in both the 100m and 200m. Elaine Thompson, a sprinter from Jamaica, won the gold medal in the 200m on Wednesday, capping off an incredible Olympics for the 24-year old.
Coming into the 200m, Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands was supposed to take the gold. Schippers won the gold at the Beijing world championships in 2015, posting a time of 21.63. That time was the fourth-best time ever run in the 200m. Thompson, who won the gold medal in the 100m on Saturday, posted a time of 21.78s to win the gold in the 200m. The time was the best time in the event this season, and it beat Schippers by 0.10s. With the win, Thompson cemented her legacy at the Olympic Games.
It appears that Jamaica is going to own the sprint races at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Aside from Thompson’s two gold medals, countryman Usain Bolt has already won the gold in the Men’s 100m. Bolt will race for the 200m gold medal on Thursday, and if he wins, Jamaica will have a clean sweep of the sprint events.
For Thompson, she is making her Olympics debut in 2016, and she has made sure her name will never be forgotten. Her best finish at any international competition came last year, when she was a part of the Jamaican gold medal team in the 4x100m relay at the 2015 Beijing World Championships.
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In July of this year, Thompson tied Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce’s Jamaican national record in the 100m, posting a time of 10.70s. Fraser-Pryce finished third in the 100m in Rio, as she has now symbolically handed the baton to Thompson as the country’s best female sprinter.