Editing Obadele Thompson (section)

====Injury years====

=====2001=====

Injuries ravished Thompson's 2001 season, and he competed sparing. Ironically, although he never ran a 200 m that season, he reached a career-high IAAF #1 world ranking in that event for several weeks based on his accumulated IAAF points. Three weeks before the 2001 World Championships in [[Edmonton|Edmonton, Alberta]], Thompson sustained a [[Pectoralis major muscle|pectoral]] tear during training but rebounded and narrowly missed making the 100 m finals while heavily bandaged.

=====2002–2009=====

The years 2002–2009 were very lean ones for Obadele, characterised primarily by recurring and new injuries and scant appearances on the track. After not racing for almost one year, he qualified for 2003 World Championships in [[Paris|Paris, France]], but had the misfortune of encountering the eventual World Champion, [[Kim Collins]], as well as Greene and Chambers (1999 World Championship 100 m bronze medallist) in the quarterfinals. Thompson's 10.14 sec. fourth-place clocking became the then-fastest performance not to make a 100 m semifinal.

Thompson raced sparingly and unremarkably in 2004, and just weeks before the 2004 Athens Olympics his participation was doubtful due to various injuries. However, he once more defied the odds when he reached and placed seventh in the 100 m finals in 10.10 sec., despite his injuries and not competing for six weeks entering the Games.

In 2005, Thompson returned to competing in the 200 m outdoors for the first time since the 2000 Sydney Olympic finals five years earlier. He placed fourth at the CAC Championships in [[Nassau, Bahamas]] in a season-best 20.53 sec. behind the 19-year-old emerging sprint sensation, Usain Bolt, who won in 20.03 sec.

In 2008, Thompson sustained another hamstring injury during the Barbados Olympic trials that ended his hopes of participating in the 2008 [[Beijing Olympics 2008|Beijing Olympics]]. In April 2009, he retired from athletics by winning his final race, a 200 m at a college invitational race in Austin, Texas.