Jamaica’s streak of Olympic gold medals in the women’s 100 meter sprint was extended to three Saturday night, but who won the gold is what came as a surprise.
Elaine Thompson took gold in 10.71 seconds in what was a dominant performance, even with seven of the eight runners finishing in fewer than 11 seconds for the first time in the Olympic history of the event. Fellow Jamaican Shelly-Ann Fraser-Price, who took gold in both 2008 and 2012, took the bronze with American Tori Bowie taking silver with a time of 10.83 seconds. Fraser-Pryce finished in 10.86 seconds.
WATCH: Thompson wins gold, Bowie silver in women’s 100
American English Gardner finished seventh with a time of 10.94 seconds.
What’s interesting about Thompson’s race is that her reaction time off the starting block was timed at 0.157 seconds, second-slowest in the field. But she made up for that slow start in a big way, removing any doubt who the fastest woman in the world is by the final ten meters of the race.
Thompson will now look to pull off the double with the 200 meters, but she’ll have her hands full with the likes of Bowie and Dafne Schippers of the Netherlands in that event.
