RIO DE JANEIRO -- Even for a sprinter, a subset of runners renowned for being some of the most high-strung, smack-talking, rawhide-tough athletes in the world, Elaine Thompson has a reputation for being especially headstrong. Stories abound of how petulance almost ended her career in her native Jamaica before it started.

Still, she did come to Rio with the fastest time in the world this year. But now her most urgent problem as she tore down the track in Saturday's 100-meter final was her veteran countrywoman Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce running to her far right, determinedly chasing the sort of history even Usain Bolt hasn't captured just yet. And Tori Bowie, the American running right beside her, who has the speed to run her down, as well.

Yet, as they strained the last couple of meters to the finish line, the growing daylight between Thompson and Bowie was emblematic of how much Olympic sprinting has changed.

Jamaica is once again the home to the Fastest Woman in the World, extending America's drought in this Olympic event it once owned to 20 years, and counting.

This time it was Thompson, a comparative newcomer to the event, who reasserted Jamaica's place atop the sprinting world as she powered to victory in 10.71 seconds, finishing a good two feet ahead of Bowie (10.83) and the highly respected Fraser-Pryce (10.86), who ran a season-best but missed becoming the first sprinter ever to win the gold medal in three consecutive Olympics, a distinction Bolt will try to complete on the same track on Sunday night.

"It was my time in 2008, and it's Elaine's time now," Fraser-Pryce said.




The U.S. still hasn't won gold in the 100 since Gail Devers captured it at the 1996 Atlanta Games. (Though Marion Jones won in 2000, she was later stripped of her medal after confessing to doping violations.) The sight of Florence Griffith-Joyner's name flashing up on the Olympic Stadium scoreboard because her astonishing 1988 world record of 10.49 in the 100 still stands was another reminder of just how much things have changed.

For Bowie, her silver medal was a nice rebound from her finish at the U.S. Olympic Trials last month behind English Gardner (who blamed physical issues for her seventh-place finish in Saturday's final in 10.93). Much like Thompson, Bowie hasn't run the 100 for very long, and she didn't have the easiest path getting here. As a child, Bowie spent some time in foster care before she was raised by her maternal grandmother, Bobbie Smith, in rural Mississippi. And she has talked a lot about the sacrifices her grandmother -- who chose not to travel to Rio -- made to keep her expanded family together.

"Oh yeah, she's watching -- and she's probably crying right now," Bowie said with a smile.

Bowie is also a former long jumper who didn't decide to concentrate on the 100 and 200 until just two years ago. Sometimes, she feels her inexperience shows.

"I came here for one thing -- I came determined to leave with a gold medal, and I didn't do that today," said Bowie, who has another chance in the 200 and the relays. "I'm excited ... [but] I feel like next time [the Olympics arrive], I'll be a real professional at it."