There’s a wave of joy emanating from the Jamaican island. And the credit goes to Elaine Thompson-Herah. Widely regarded as the fastest woman alive in the 100m discipline, she ran the distance in just 10.54s at Eugene in 2021. In 2023, she clocked a season best of 10.79s. But tragedy struck at the NYC Grand Prix on 9 June 2024, when she finished ninth in the 100m dash. And the reason? It was an injury that put her off the track for around 500 days. But not anymore!

We’d already picked up a few subtle signs from Elaine Thompson-Herah on Instagram hinting that a comeback was brewing. In one of her posts, she wrote, “It’s a long road, but I am willing to start over and keep working to make a full recovery and resume my track career.” Now, those hints have turned into action. Thompson-Herah is reportedly back in full-time training at the Elite Performance Track Club after missing the entire 2025 season. The five-time Olympic champion has returned under Reynaldo Walcott’s guidance—a coach she first joined in 2023 while battling a stubborn Achilles injury.

That same Achilles issue forced her out of the Jamaican Trials and ultimately cost her a chance to defend her titles at the Paris Olympics. Determined to fully recover, she opted to sit out the whole 2025 season as well. Thompson-Herah has been managing Achilles flare-ups for years, even during her most dominant runs, but the cycle eventually became too unpredictable to risk competing.

Now, her comeback couldn’t be more strategic. With the LA28 Olympics still nearly three years away, a 2026 return gives her the ideal window. She now has enough time to rebuild her explosiveness, regain racing sharpness, and slowly climb back to championship form. And with her talent and pedigree, three years is more than enough to mount one final, historic push.

Elaine Thompson-Herah is a generational sprinter. However, the 100m and the 200m landscapes have shifted during her time away from the sport. And this shift has made people wonder if Thompson-Herah can reclaim her former glory in the upcoming seasons. 

Can Elaine Thompson-Herah repeat her dominating performance after her return?

Thompson-Herah isn’t just an Olympic champion. She’s the only woman to have ever won back-to-back Olympic double sprint titles. However, fellow Olympic medalist and track analyst, Ato Boldon, recently claimed that Thompson-Herah has already won her last individual medal on the global stage. He claimed that even if she made a comeback, her injury setback might not allow her to have the same impact that she had before. “Elaine is done,” he asserted. 

Well, Boldon wasn’t alone in this claim. Noted sports journalist and analyst, Leighton Levy, during an interview with Tamara TV, opined that Elaine Thompson-Herah might not go sub-10.6s ever again. He firmly stated, “I don’t think that’s possible anymore.” Even Emerole Anderson, a fan-favorite track and field analyst and educator, had similar thoughts. Addressing the talks of the Jamaican’s return, he once said, “We may not actually see Elaine Thompson-Herah get back to her old form… to be able to bounce back from injuries, to be able to get to the top of the podium once again. That is not easy.”

Thompson-Herah is now 33 years old. And it’s an age when muscle recovery slows down, and the risk of injury begins to rise. She herself stated that she hadn’t had a season when she didn’t have niggles or pain. Still, with renewed training, a clear runway to LA28, and a champion’s mindset, Thompson-Herah’s comeback remains one of the most intriguing stories in track and field. But do you think she can ace the 2026 season?