Olympic champions Elaine Thompson-Herah and Ryan Crouser are NACAC Athletes of the Year

Written by Leighton Levy. Posted in Athletics. | 07 November 2021 | 2545 Views
Tags: Athletics, Diamond League, Elaine Thompsonherah, Jamaica, Nacac Athletes Of The Year, Olympics, Ryan Crouser, Usa

Jamaica’s Olympic 100m and 200m champion, Elaine Thompson-Herah and the USA’s Ryan Crouser have been named 2021 Female and Male Athletes of the Year for the North American, Central American and Caribbean Athletics Association.

The 29-year-old Thompson-Herah truly captured the public imagination in 2021. The double sprint champion from the 2016 Olympics in Rio, the Jamaican turned in performances the likes of which have not been seen since at least four years before her birth.

Her 2021 season will go down in history as perhaps the greatest of all time. Within the span of just over three weeks, between the end of July and late August, she won two individual gold medals at the Olympic Games in Tokyo, Japan.

Her 100m win came in an Olympic record time of 10.61 while her 200m victory four days later yielded a national record of 21.53 seconds. It was also the second-fastest time in history.

Shortly after her double Olympic triumph, which she topped off by winning sprint relay gold with Jamaica, Thompson-Herah lined up at the Prefontaine Classic at Hayward Field in Eugene, Oregon, USA and stamped her class with a run of 10.54 seconds, a new national record, and like her 200m Olympic win, was the fastest time in the world since Florence Griffith-Joyner’s world record in 1988.

Thompson-Herah would go on to take her third Diamond League title, winning the women’s 100m final in Zürich with a time of 10.65 seconds.

Only five women this century have ended a season with the fastest times in both the 100m and 200m. Coming into the season, four of those five were Jamaican. And this season, Thompson-Herah became the first woman ever to repeat that feat following her 2016 success.

Along the way, Thompson-Herah went under the 10.80-second barrier 15 times. Only her compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, has more. However, Thompson-Herah is the queen of sub-10.70 runs, with four, one more than Flo Jo.

Thompson-Herah, Fraser-Pryce, and Shericka Jackson completed the Tokyo women’s 100m medal podium, and the three Jamaicans have combined for 34 runs under 11 seconds this year.

Crouser set the men’s shot put standard indoors and out this past season.

The 28-year-old American champion won gold at the Tokyo Olympics as well as the Diamond League trophy.