Puma signs Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah as she moves from Nike

By

Sandra Halliday

Published
Jul 17, 2022

If you’re going to sign up an athlete to endorse your running shoes, why not make it the fastest woman alive? Puma has done just that, signing five-time Olympic champion and fastest woman alive Elaine Thompson-Herah.

The 30-year-old Jamaican joins its roster of track and field athletes ahead of the 2022 World Athletics Championships in Eugene, Oregon.

She’d previously worked with Nike.

She was the first woman in history to win the ‘sprint double’ at consecutive Olympic Games, triumphing in both the 100 metres and 200 metres at both Rio in 2016 and Tokyo last year. She became the fastest woman alive when she completed the 100 metres in 10.54 seconds at a separate event last year.

Puma has sponsored the Jamaica Athletics Administrative Association since 2002. And Thompson-Herah now joins her Jamaican compatriot, world record holder and Olympic gold medalist Usain Bolt, on its list of top stars.

She said her next aim is to break the 100 metre world record because she may be the fastest women alive but the record was last broken by the late Florence Griffith-Joyner 34 years ago.

It would be some feat if she does break that record as many statisticians believe that the 10.49 seconds Flo-Jo achieved was likely to have been wind assisted on what was a very windy day.

If Thompson-Herah can get her fastest time from the current 10.54 seconds below Flo-Jo’s 10.49 seconds, it would be a huge boost for Puma, as well as for her own place in history.