Kishane Thompson: Top facts to know about Jamaican sprint sensation
Jamaican sprinter Kishane Thompson is the man to watch out for on the track at the Olympic Games Paris 2024*.
The 2024 Jamaican National Championships determined the Jamaican track and field athletes who will head to Paris, and in the men’s 100m on Friday (28 June), Thompson stormed to a phenomenal victory with 9.77 on the clock. Thompson’s time is the fastest of any man this year, and the world’s fastest 100m time in two years– to say that this is the perfect preparation for the Games is an understatement.
*As National Olympic Committees have the exclusive authority for the representation of their respective countries at the Olympic Games, athletes’ participation at the Paris Games depends on their NOC selecting them to represent their delegation at Paris 2024.
Get to know the Jamaican sprinter who is hoping to add his name to Jamaican athletics history at Paris 2024.
Kishane Thompson in esteemed company
Jamaica is renowned for its prowess on the track, and Thompson wants to establish himself among the legendary names who have come before him. He is on the right track to do so, with his time in the men’s 100m final making him the fourth fastest Jamaican sprinter in history.
The three men who have run the 100m faster are three of greatest male sprinters: Eight-time Olympic champion Usain Bolt who has a personal best of 9.58, four-time Olympic medallist Yohan Blake (9.69) and Rio 2016 4x100m relay gold medallist Asafa Powell (9.72).
Straight out of the blocks
Thompson’s victory at the Jamaican trials is impressive enough for the time, but even more remarkable is that this was his first competition of the season.
His performances mark a statement season debut, even shaving off five hundredths from his result in the previous day’s 100m heats. The 22-year-old has been racing for the first time since the end of his debut campaign in September 2023, where he ran a 9.87 at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon, USA.
Above all, there is certainly more to come from Thompson. Once he had stormed into a clear lead he eased up, otherwise his time would have been even more impressive. What will he be capable of if he competes at Paris 2024?
Thompson coached by Stephen Francis
“My coach instructed me just to run the first 60 metres, nothing more – after that, shut it down,” Thompson said after the race. And who exactly is his coach? None other than the legendary Stephen ‘Franno’ Francis, who has coached numerous Jamaican athletes and Olympic champions.
Francis knows what it takes to mould an Olympic champion: he coached the last four women’s 100m champions and trained Powell, who Thompson is only five hundredths off. Among the other names the Jamaican coach has coached include Shelly-Ann Fraser Pryce, Michael Frater and Brigitte Foster-Hylton.
There is no better man to prepare Thompson ahead of the Olympic Games, and with little over a month to go until the Paris 2024 men’s 100 final, the best of Thompson is yet to come.
