Olympic champion Elaine Thompson-Herah ‘was banned from Instagram’ after posting clips of her races

The Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah – who completed an unprecedented double-double at the Tokyo Olympics – has revealed that she was briefly banned from Instagram for posting footage from her victories in Japan.

The 29-year-old won the 200m final on Tuesday, before completing her double with the 100m final on Saturday – repeating the same feat that she accomplished in Rio five years ago.

Thompson-Herah will now likely go down as one of the greatest sprinters of all time but, in an unprecedented turn of events, she claimed to have been blocked from Instagram for two days because she did not own the rights to the races she won.

After revealing the news on Twitter, many were stunned that even an athlete who had competed and won a race couldn’t share the moment online with her fans.

It’s unclear whether Thompson-Herah complained to the platform directly, but a few hours later she revealed on her Instagram story that the ban had been lifted.

@fastelaine/Instagram

There has been much controversy over the TV rights and coverage at Tokyo 2020 with the BBC missing key events as they were happening due to the new constraints on what they can broadcast.

This lead to former BBC chairman Lorde Grade calling on parliament to look into what can be done to change this system, adding: “It’s a huge disappointment to people not to be able to have the usual fuller BBC coverage. The Olympic Games belong to everyone really.

indy100 has contacted Instagram for comment.