Can Elaine Thompson-Herah find form amid chaos as she looks to do the three-peat at the Paris Olympics?

Can Elaine Thompson-Herah find form amid chaos as she looks to do the three-peat at the Paris Olympics?

How much is too late for an athlete to get into form in a season? What is the realistic ceiling for a multiple Olympic Gold medalist in a track season? Certainly, the bar can’t be as low as not qualifying for the world championships. But athletics can be unscripted, and injuries/loss of form happen. Still, there are expectations from fans who have watched you dominate over a given period and will most often pay top dollar to see you compete.

If you are wondering what this tale is all about, you don’t have to think too far to realize it’s about Jamaica’s sprint sensation, Elaine Thompson-Herah. Although she closed out the season with a 10.79s to finish third, this was a year, she will look back and take many lessons from as she builds up towards the 2024 season.

Through all the Sulphur and Chaos, Thompson-Herah knows deep down that it’s always great to look at things from perspective. Many have wondered how she was going to react to missing out on the Jamaican team at this year’s world championships, and although she made the relay squad, which eventually won Silver behind the Americans, it felt strange not seeing her compete stride for stride against her rivals, most of whom she decimated on her way to double Olympic Gold in at the Tokyo Olympic Games in 2021.

Surely, it must have felt strange seeing the likes of Shericka Jackson, Sha’Carri Richardson, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, and Marie Josee Ta Lou all ruffle feathers against each other during the season without being a part of the conversation. After all, these are sprinters she has gotten the better of at some point in her career.

Of course, her numbers in the 100m and 200m don’t make for terrible reading, but if you are the fastest woman alive, having clocked 10.54s two years ago, there will be a minimum expectation from you when she goes on the blocks to run. And when you are from Jamaica, a country that prides itself as the sprint factory of the world, the pressure goes a notch higher. Thompson-Herah has found out the hard way this year, but she continues to stay positive.

“Honestly, it was really hard missing out on the World Championships in Budapest. I cried for two weeks, but my husband pushed me to continue for the rest of the…