Olympic medallist and television analyst Ato Boldon says Elaine Thompson Herah has won her last individual medal on the global stage and even if she returns to track and field she will not have the impact she had before her latest injury setback.

Given her impressive record, running the second-fastest time in the history of the women’s 100m, 10.54 seconds, and being the only woman to have ever won back-to-back Olympic Games double sprint titles, in 2016 and 2021, Boldon says Thompson Herah has raised the bar higher than anyone else and that will be nigh impossible for her to replicate.

Thompson Herah, who was third in the women’s 100m when Jamaica swept the medals at the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon, in 2022 before going on to win the sprint double at the Commonwealth Games later that year, has not competed since 2024 when she ran just two races.

She has been affected by an Achilles injury that has caused her to miss considerable time from training and competition over the years.

Boldon, who was a guest on Saturday’s TalkSports episode, a radio show hosted by Grenadian sports journalist Michael Bascombe, said bluntly, “I think Elaine is done as a threat,” reminding his audience he had made that comment before.

“That did not go over well in Jamaica because they saw that as me insulting the queen,” he added.

Rather, Boldon says he was giving her the highest compliment.

“I think we can make a case for her being the best overall sprinter, ever. She’s done what nobody has done, 100m-200m at back-to-back Olympics. Nobody has done that,” he said. “But maybe as a result of that, her odometer is a little higher than everybody else’s, and when you see feet and Achilles and those sorts of parts giving out, do you understand the forces necessary to run 10.5 or 10.6 or 10.7?

“It’s like going to find a car that has a ton of miles on it, and, yeah, you pretty it up, and then maybe it looks good and now you ask it to go and do what it used to do in the beginning, and it falls apart.”

Boldon explained that when he was asked the same question before, there had been no ill intent in his response and felt it was misrepresented.

“When I said it, it wasn’t with any malicious intent,” he said. “Somebody asked me, ‘is Elaine going to be a factor’ and I said ‘No, I think Elaine is done as a threat’, well, of course, the headline is bold and says ‘Elaine is done’. Well, if that’s how you want to put it, fine, but if you’re asking me if I think Elaine is going to win another medal in her career individually, no, I don’t.”

The bold-talking Trinidad and Tobago Olympian said however he was more than willing to be proven wrong.

“I’ll be glad,” he said. “I’ll eat that crow with pepper sauce if she comes back and does it. Because I would want to see her in the same way I would want to see [recently retired] Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce run one more time.”

He said he would also love to see Thompson Herah come back and prove him wrong and have a great year.

“This is for ‘the Ato Boldon prediction kind of year’. I don’t think it’s happening,” he said.

Jamaica’s Elaine Thompson Herah (centre) competes against Nigeria’s Favour Ofili (right) at the Commonwealth Games in Birmingham, England in July 2022.

BOLDON… when I said it, it wasn’t with any malicious intent