American sprinter Trayvon Bromell has revealed that not making it into the finals of the 100m at last year’s Tokyo Olympics left him a broken man, but he received support from two unlikely sources from Jamaica.

The 26-year-old American, the fastest man in the world in 2021, was a heavy favourite to win the USA’s first Olympic 100m gold medal since Justin Gatlin in 2014, but crashed out in the semi-finals leaving Fred Kerley and Ronnie Baker to carry America’s hopes.

Kerley won the silver medal behind Italy’s Lamont Jacobs while Canada’s Andre DeGrasse was third.

“Emotionally broken” after once again falling short of his own expectations, Bromell said Yohan Blake and Usain Bolt were there for him in his time of need.

 “I’ve got a lot of love from Jamaica. I’ve got a real strong connection with both Usain and Yohan. I’ve talked to both of them during this process when I’ve been coming back,” Bromell told AW in a recent interview.

“It’s been humbling and an honour for them to even support me and they’ve helped me through hard times. After the Games, Yohan came and sat down with me in Tokyo and told me how proud he was of my comeback.

“After having all those injuries and battles to coming back and competing at a high level was big for me. One day I’ll look back and know that I had the strength to fight through the toughest of times so it was good to just be an advocate for people that want to keep pushing to obtain your dreams.”

Blake, who also failed to make his third Olympic final, praised his American rival.

“For Trayvon Bromell to come back from those two Achilles injuries and run the times that he has is immaculate for him,” said Blake, who has had his own challenges with injury ever since he tore his hamstring in Glasgow in 2014, two years after he won double silver at the 2012 London Olympics.