9. Marie Josée Ta Lou
Ivoirian sprinter Marie-Josée Ta Lou has regularly featured in our annual toplist owing to her talent and consistency over the years. Belonging to the generation of athletes that are gradually approaching the twilight of their careers, Ta Lou has no doubt enjoyed a good run with several continental medals to her name, as well as World Championships medals from London and Doha, and a Silver from the 2018 World Indoor Championships in Birmingham.
The major laurel missing from her medal cabinet is an Olympic medal, so it’s quite understandable that she nearly quit the sport after failing to finish on the podium at the Tokyo Olympics last year, five years after 4th place finishes in the 100m/200m in Rio.
Fortunately, she had a great support system that gave her the much needed push and support to go on, and so even though 2022 was a bumpy ride for the petite sprinter, she remained resolute till the end and snatched an African Record (AR) in the process to get a spot on this toplist.
The 34-year-old moved to the US last November and switched coaches. She loved her new environment and adapted pretty quickly. However, she revealed that she’s had to manage a nagging shoulder injury all season, which hampered her performance. She raced in six competitions before the World Championships and won the sprint double at the Occidental Invitational where she clocked 11.07s and 22.68s respectively.
Moving to the Wanda Diamond League, she placed 6th at the Prefontaine Classic (11.07s), 2nd in Rabat (11.04s), 3rd in Paris (11.01s) and 5th in Rome in the 200m (22.77s), all in preparation for her fourth appearance at the World Championships. She predictably dominated her heat in Oregon where she posted 10.92s, improving to an SB of 10.87s in the semis where she placed 2nd behind Elaine Thompson-Herah.
In the final, the African Games Champion would have hoped for a better outcome than her eventual 7th place; nevertheless, she was happy to make the final, saying afterwards, “I am a fighter, so I just do what I have to do to make the final.”
An area record and a whole lot of emotions for Marie-Josée TA LOU who ran the 100m in 10.72 for her 7th time in Monaco 🚀#MonacoDL #DiamondLeague #HerculisEBS
📸 @DanVernonPhoto pic.twitter.com/QxDO1UlVXP
— Herculis (@MeetingHerculis) August 10, 2022
Ta Lou had no inkling that the best was yet to come as she resumed competition nearly one month later. Her first outing was at the Kamila Skolimowska Memorial where she clocked 11.00s in 3rd place. Three days later, as a member of a star-studded cast at the Herculis Meeting in Monaco, Ta Lou blazed to a new African Record of 10.72s to finish 3rd as World Champion Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce blasted to a superb 10.62s for the win, with Shericka Jackson following in 10.71s.
Ta Lou’s new AR puts her on joint seventh with Sha’Carri Richardson on the women’s 100m all-time list, giving her something to savour until next season even as she’s likely to keep the flag flying until the 2024 Olympics in Paris.
