Fraser-Pryce, wearing her hair dyed in Jamaica’s national colours, congratulated her young partner on her win.
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Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson celebrates after she won the women’s 100m final.
TENNIS: Monica Puig won Puerto Rico’s first Olympic gold medal in any sport, upsetting Angelique Kerber of Germany 6-4, 4-6, 6-1 in the women’s singles final.
Thompson beat out her fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, who was trying to make Olympic history as the first athlete to win three consecutive golds in the 100-meter dash, an accomplishment that Usain Bolt will also be shooting for.
I cried because it was really unbearable, but I knew, I had one more race to go and I just prayed and said, ‘God, if it’s to be, it will be, ‘ and I am really happy, ‘ she revealed. The victory continued an upward career arc that she credits to a tough-love talk from renowned Jamaican club coach, Stephen Francis, last year.
Fraser-Pryce revealed she had also been struggling with an injury.
“Most times I hate talking about my toe”.
Jamaica is once again the home to the Fastest Woman in the World, extending America’s drought in this Olympic event it once owned to 20 years, and counting.
Thompson seemed a little sheepish about beating her idol and joining the list of sprinting greats from the island that adores its track and field stars.
Jamaican Elaine Thompson celebrates winning the Women’s 100 metres at the Rio Olympics on Saturday night.
“It’s always to win”.
All three medalists grew up in impoverished communities.
She knows Thompson well, too. “It’s been a rough season for her”, Thompson said.
“I look up to her so much but I never thought I’d be sitting here today”, said Thompson.
The two married in 2011, and Fraser-Pryce has spoken of his unwavering support. Ethiopia’s Tamirat Tola got bronze.
“I have some consultations with some doctors and I’m just looking forward to the relays and, hopefully, I will be able to give my team two solid legs”, said Fraser-Pryce, who added that surgery was very possible at this point. “That’s what I’m going for”, Bolt told a scrum of reporters after hardly breaking a sweat. After she and her sister were sent to foster care as toddlers, their grandmother won custody and raised them. Yet no one could imagine the pain she would bear over the next 10 seconds.
“We all have a story and I wouldn’t trade my story for anything”.
Away from the track there was yet another, and unexpected, development in the Russian doping saga when the country’s sole track and field competitor, long jumper Darya Klishina, was suspended from the Games after the IAAF withdrew her special eligibility status. Bolt and Orlando’s Justin Gatlin both won their heats of the 100 to advance to Sunday’s expected showdown.
While Thompson romped, the evening’s best drama came earlier in the men’s 10,000 meters, where Britain’s Mo Farah defended his title, rallying after he tripped and fell with 15 laps to go.
American Galen Rupp, Farah’s training partner who famously dueled with Farah on his London home turf in the 2012 Games, joined the lead pack late. Farah popped up immediately, losing only a couple of seconds, and was soon back at full speed.
It was then that she called her agent, Kim Holland, and finally took the advice of Holland (and others before) to switch to sprinting. In 2016, it is her time, and I’m happy Jamaica gets to keep the gold.
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Henderson soared 8.38m on his final long jump attempt to snatch the gold from South Africa’s Luvo Manyonga by one centimetre, while Rutherford had to settle for bronze with 8.29m.
