Jamaica sprint queen Thompson-Herah splits with coach
Sports
After eight months, she will attempt to defend her sprint titles at the 2024 Paris Games
Kingston (Jamaica) (AFP) – Five-time Olympic gold medalist Elaine Thompson-Herah has split with her coach, eight months before she attempts to defend her sprint titles at the 2024 Paris Games, her agent said Wednesday.
Thompson-Herah has parted company with Shanikie Osbourne after refusing to pay what she described as "extremely excessive" terms sought by her coach.
"The package proposed by (Osbourne)...was extremely excessive and without any flexibility to negotiate by the other party," Thompson-Herah's management team said.
"Collectively, we had no choice but to seek the services of another coach.
"With the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris, France, fast approaching, Mrs Thompson-Herah is fully focused on her preparations for the season and the defense of her Olympic titles."
Thompson-Herah, 31, is the second-fastest woman in history over 100 metres after clocking a time of 10.54sec in Eugene in the US state of Oregon in 2021. Only the late 1988 Olympic champion Florence Griffith-Joyner has run faster.
Thompson-Herah has dominated women's sprinting for much of the past decade -- she won the 100m-200m double at the Rio and Tokyo Olympics, as well as the 4x100m relay gold in Tokyo.
However injuries hampered her 2023 season and she failed to claim an individual spot for the Jamaica team at the World Championships in Budapest in August.
