Elaine Thompson-Herah Wins ‘Laureus Sports Woman of the Year’ Award Clinching Yet Another Historical Moment

Published 04/25/2022, 9:45 AM EDT

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Elaine Thompson-Herah certainly has numerous accolades on her list of achievements. Recently, she won the most prestigious award in sports adding to this list. During the Tokyo Olympics, Elaine became the most decorated sprinter. She successfully defended her place in 100m and 200m at Tokyo Olympics 2020.

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Mind-Blowing Win for Elaine Thompson-Herah

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The athlete won the sportswoman of the year award at the 2022 Laureus World Sports Awards. The award ceremony was held digitally on April 24. The top honor is awarded annually to the highest contributor in sports.

Following the event, Thompson-Herah tweeted, “It is indeed an honor to be nominated against these wonderful and super talented ladies across the world and chosen as the winner of this prestigious award it is mind-blowing.

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Later she posted a video on the platform expressing her gratitude to the Laureus Sports Academy. In the video, she also thanked her management team, friends, family, and fans. The five-time Olympic champion said“I know Usain (Bolt) has won Laureus awards before, so to bring this trophy back home to the Caribbean, also in Jamaica, is very special.” She is the first Jamaican woman to win the award.

 

Elaine’s Surprising Feats

During the Tokyo Olympics, she completed the 100m sprint in 10.61 seconds while she finished the 200m event in 21.53 seconds.

She managed to clock in at 10.54 seconds for the 100m event at the 2021 Prefontaine Classic held in Eugene. This is a feat in itself falling short of Florence Griffith-Joyner’s 1988 record by only five-hundredth of a second.

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Currently, she is chasing the 34-year-old record. This is echoed in her recent statement, “My motivation is to be even better. I told myself that I want to be the greatest female sprinter, so I am just going to focus on what the future holds for me.”

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When Thompson-Herah was nominated for the award, Laureus Academy Member Michael Johnson said, “She is an athlete who just completely dominated their sport last year.” He added, “100m, 200m, repeating as champion, which is very difficult to do, and threatening one of the oldest and most impressive world records in the books, the women’s 100m – we haven’t talked about anyone threatening that record for years.”

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The event is tabled by a 71-member panel of the Laureus World Sports Academy. Winners of each category are decided based on the votes of the panel.

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Written by:

Aklanta Chetia

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Aklanta Chetia Wanniang is a US Sports author for EssentiallySports. He has a Master's degree in Literature from the University of Delhi. With an interest in learning about multiple sports, Aklanta himself is a former sportsperson and has participated in state and national level swimming events.
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Edited by:

Deepakshi Chaudhary