Elaine Thompson-Herah: Will third coaching change in three years revive her stuttering career?

Elaine Thompson-Herah

Elaine Thompson-Herah: Will third coaching change in three years revive her stuttering career?

Joel Omotto 06:02 - 04.10.2024

Jamaican sprint legend Elaine Thompson-Herah is looking for a new coach for the third time in three years but there are doubts whether the change will return her to her glory days.

Jamaican sprint queen Elaine Thompson-Herah has followed Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce in ditching veteran coach Reynaldo Walcott and his Elite Performance Track Club.

However, unlike Fraser-Pryce, who has worked with Walcott for four years, Thompson-Herah has lasted less than a year with the tactician, having joined forces last November as she looked forward to the Paris Olympics.

Thompson-Herah was hoping to be in shape for her Olympics 100m and 200m title defence but all went up in smoke when an Achilles injury ruled out her out of the Paris Games in June.

It was a disappointing and painful experience for the 32-year-old, the only woman to win back-to-back 100m and 200m Olympics gold who hoped to write further chapters of history in Paris.

Now, heading into the 2025 season where the World Championships in Tokyo is the main focus, she is left looking for another coach.

Reports in Jamaica suggest she is considering a return to MVP Trak Club where she trained between 2016 and 2021, enjoying remarkable success that yielded five Olympics gold medals.

It will be a major turnaround for Thompson-Herah who never hesitates to jump ship whenever she feels that she is not being served right.

She left MVP Track Club in October 2021 in unclear circumstances with coach Stephen Francis saying she is not welcomed there but she appears ready to mend fences.

Thompson-Herah has not been the same since leaving MVP Track Club with injuries and poor form hampering her from returning to her brilliant best.

She managed bronze at the 2022 World championships in 100m and after a poor outing at the Jamaica National trials for the 2023 World Championships in Budapest, Hungary, she linked up with coach Shanikie Osbourne.

It started well as she ran 11.00, her second season’s best in her first race under Osbourne, and went on to improve it to 10.79. She would finish an impressive third at the 2023 Diamond League season finale.

However, before the year was out, issues arose when the two parties were about to renew their contract with Thompson-Herah’s camp claiming Osbourne had high salary demands that made a deal impossible, leading to a parting of ways.

That is how Thompson-Herah ended up joining forces with Walcott and Fraser-Pryce and the tactician was thrilled to have both legends in her camp. However, things have gone south again less than one year into their agreement.

Now, she has left again, a third coaching change in as many years and it remains to be seen if Thompson Herah can reignite her career under new management or the struggles will continue.

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