The 2024 Olympics didn’t unfold how Australian track star Michelle Jenneke envisioned, but she’s proud of the perseverance shown through the Paris Games’ most challenging times.
Taking to Instagram on Thursday, Jenneke — a viral sensation who made waves over her pre-race “jiggling” — revealed she ran the women’s 100-meter hurdles repechage with a ruptured hamstring, one day after crashing on the track in the original heat.
“Not the Olympics I had dreamed it would be. I felt ready to run the race of my life but unfortunately I fully ruptured one of my hamstring tendons in my heat which caused me to hit a hurdle and take a pretty big fall,” the 31-year-old Jenneke began.
She was able to get up and complete the race to qualify for Thursday’s repechage.REUTERS
“I was lucky to escape the fall without hurting myself further and I’m immensely proud that I showed up today against the odds to finish off my olympic campaign.”
When competing in Wednesday’s 100-meter hurdles, Jenneke tripped and fell on the track at Stade de France after getting caught up with the third hurdle.
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She completed the race and was eligible to compete in a repechage, a.k.a. a second opportunity for athletes to qualify for the next round.
Jenneke said after Wednesday’s event that she “just felt something pop in my lead leg down towards my knee and so I lost all power.”
Testing revealed a fully ruptured hamstring tendon, according to the Olympics’ website.
Although she missed the semi-finals after clocking in Thursday at 13.86 seconds, Jenneke “wanted to prove to myself and the rest of Australia that I have got grit in me and I’m not going to give up easily.”
“I ran today with one less hamstring than usual and obviously that was pretty difficult, but … I said to the doctor, ‘Can I still run?’” she said afterward.
Jenneke, a captain of Australia’s Olympic team, made sure to take in the scene around her.
“I stood out there, and I was soaking it all in, and I was having a great time despite everything that was going on with my body. I’m always going to do it because that is what I do when I am enjoying myself,” she said.
