Speculation has been rife in Jamaican Twitter spaces today (August 24) around whether fastest woman alive, Elaine Thomspon-Herah, is making major power moves. 

It was a simple gesture, frankly: Nike, for several hours, disappeared as one of the three entities on Thompson-Herah’s sponsored brands list. What remained on her respective Twitter and Instagram pages were Jamaican sponsors Flow and National Commerical Bank (NCB).

While it was not clear when the initial change in her bio was made, Nike was later readded to the sponsors’ list as of Tuesday afternoon.

Quickly noticed by Jamaicans, however, many have surmised that the omission stemmed from the glaring contrast between Nike’s marketing strategies for the reigning Jamaican sprint queen and US athlete Sha’Carri Richardson at the Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Oregon last Saturday.

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Thompson-Herah and compatriot Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce, as the two fastest women on the planet, got virtually zero marketing push from the sports apparel conglomerate as opposed to the advertising blitz around Richardson, the sixth-fastest.

Richardson, and her 2.5 million Instagram followers, were seemingly more important than Thompson-Herah, who, on Saturday, led a repeat Jamaica’s Olympic sweep of the women’s 100m at the Tokyo Games. 

The 21-year-old sprinter was outclassed, finishing a shocking ninth in 11.14 seconds—miles behind Thomspon-Herah, who clocked a blistering 10:54s to win and cement herself as the greatest alive. 

Like the Tokyo Olympic final, Fraser-Pryce finished second in 10.73s and Shericka Jackson claimed third place with a 10.76s run.

On the conclusion of the greatly anticipated race, the Jamaican Twitterati collectively slammed Nike for its silence.

The outrage grew when a post celebrating Thompson-Herah’s exploits was made on the Nike Run Club Instagram page of 5.7 million followers, and not the company’s main page, which enjoys some 164.3 million more fans. 

Checks by Our Today note that Thomspon-Herah and Fraser-Pryce are still listed as North American athletes under Nike’s sponsorship umbrella.

Both Nike and Elaine are among the top trending topics on Twitter today as Jamaicans weigh in on the possible spat with sponsors. 

Scores expressed support for Thomspon-Herah and held out hope that rivals Puma or Adidas will showcase her better, while others were still bemused at Nike’s lukewarm reaction to the second-fastest time ever. 

With Thomspon-Herah returning Nike to her bio, it is left to be seen if any discussions took place that will result in a better reaction from the US-based company. 

After a dominant performance in Eugene and effectively silencing critics for now, Thomspon-Herah turns her sights to Lausanne, Switzerland, the next stop in the Wanda Diamond League circuit this weekend.