Track and field legend Florence Griffith Joyner’s 100-meter Olympic record stood for a remarkable 33 years, and even as athletes collected their Olympics gold medals in the decades since, her mark of 10.62 from the 1988 Seoul Olympics was unbeatable.
Enter Elaine Thompson-Herah.
The two-time Olympian from Jamaica not only defended her Olympic gold from the 2016 Rio Games, but she also broke Griffith Joyner’s Olympic record by .01 seconds with a blistering 10.61 sprint in the women’s 100-meter dash final on Saturday at the Tokyo Olympics.
And with that gold-medal run, Thompson-Herah led a Jamaican sweep of the event, as Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce won silver with a time of 10.74 and Shericka Jackson won bronze at 10.76.
NEW OLYMPIC RECORD!@FastElaine defends her #Olympics 100m title – running the second fastest time EVER. #TokyoOlympics pic.twitter.com/9UA0ABtuEu
— #TokyoOlympics (@NBCOlympics) July 31, 2021
Thompson-Herah posted the second fastest time ever in the event behind Griffith Joyner’s world record of 10.49 — which she set in 1988 before the Olympics that year.
As the Associated Press noted, this was the first Jamaican sweep of the 100 meters since the women did it at the 2008 Beijing Games, when Fraser-Pryce won gold. Fraser-Pryce — who was favored to win Saturday after she clocked a 10.63 sprint ahead of the Tokyo Games — now has two Olympic golds, a silver and a bronze in the 100 meters.
A CLEAN SWEEP FOR JAMAICA IN THE WOMEN’S 100M 🇯🇲
🥇 Elaine Thompson-Herah (Olympic Record)
🥈 Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce
🥉 Shericka Jackson pic.twitter.com/nmRX2ESzKv— SportsCenter (@SportsCenter) July 31, 2021
It was an incredible 100-meter final, and Thompson-Herah is, once again, the fastest woman in the world.
