Can Elaine Thompson-Herah break Flo-Jo's 100m world record? 

The women's 100m world record is 34 years old this year.

Since Florence Griffith-Joyner, also known as Flo-Jo, did it in 1988, nobody has broken the 10.5-second barrier.

But could Jamaica's Elaine Thompson-Herah soon do it? Last year, she clocked a stunning 10.54 seconds, the second-fastest in history, at the Prefontaine Classic in Oregon.

This year's World Athletics Championships happen to take place at the same stadium – Hayward Field, on the University of Oregon campus in Eugene.

Speaking to the BBC in May, Thompson-Herah said: "My main aim is to target for the World Championship. I really want to break the world record. I think once I have that line-up and that good weather it is possible.

"This year I’ll be 30 years old and to see myself as that 30-year-old sprinter breaking Flo Jo’s record would be something very spectacular. That would be written all over in the history books, that cannot be erased. That would be something very important to me."

Here, we take a look at the current all-time top 10 times ever set in the women's 100m, and what makes Thompson-Herah's challenge of Flo-Jo's mark so incredible. Remarkably, too, Flo-Jo and Thompson-Herah appear seven times between them on the top-10 list.

#1: 10.49s, Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA), 16 July 1988 in Indianapolis (USA)

The current gold standard, this world record has stood for 34 years. But it's not without its controversy.

It was the U.S. Olympic Trials in Indianapolis, Indiana, for the Seoul 1988 Olympic team. Flo-Jo had been a noted 200m runner, winning Olympic and World Championships silver in 1984 and then 1987, but her 100m PB was in the high-10-second range.

In the first heat of the quarter-finals, Flo-Jo stunned the world to clock 10.49 seconds, a scarcely-believable time. But there was a quirk: on a very windy day in Indianapolis, the wind gauge for her race read ±0.0m/s. Across the track, the men's triple jump was taking place at the same time in a tailwind of +4.3m/s – the legal limit for records is 2.0m/s.

While World Athletics continues to recognise Flo-Jo's 10.49 as the world record, most statisticians note that the run was “probably strongly wind-assisted”.

#2: 10.54s, Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM), 21 August 2021 in Eugene (USA)

In her first race after winning Olympic gold in Tokyo, breaking Flo-Jo's Olympic record from 1988 in the process, Thompson-Herah was simply unstoppable.

Racing at Hayward Field in the Prefontaine Classic Diamond League meet, she posted a blistering 10.54 seconds – a mark many believe comparable to Flo-Jo's 10.49 due to the wind questions surrounding the record.

"A few years ago I was asked whether I could break that record and I said it was not possible, but for me to run a 10.54 means it is definitely within reach," Thompson-Herah said the week after.

#3: 10.60s, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM), 26 August 2021 in Lausanne (SUI)

The only woman other than Griffith-Joyner and Thompson-Herah to appear more than once on the top-10 list, Thompson-Herah's fellow Jamaican and long-time rival Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce nipped in just ahead of Thompson-Herah in a fast Lausanne Diamond League race barely a week after the remarkable scenes in Eugene.

With a strong +1.7m/s tailwind, there was anticipation that the face-off between the two Jamaicans could produce a time capable of beating Griffith-Joyner's.

Fraser-Pryce led from the start to clock a personal best and the third-fastest time ever, but Flo-Jo's mark was not threatened.

=#4: 10.61s, Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA), 17 July 1988 in Indianapolis (USA)

The day after her stunning 10.49 run, Flo-Jo returned to the track in Indianapolis for the semi-finals and final at the U.S. Olympic Trials.

She would run 10.70 seconds in the semi-final – then the second-best time in history – before beating that in the final with a 10.61.

In the space of two days, she had run the three fastest 100m times ever by a woman.

=#4: 10.61s, Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM), 31 July 2021 in Tokyo (JPN)

This was the first sign that Flo-Jo's record was under threat.

At the delayed Olympic Games Tokyo 2020 in 2021, Thompson-Herah defended her Olympic 100m title in style.

The Jamaican had to catch the quick-starting Fraser-Pryce out of the blocks, then powered home in 10.61 seconds – breaking a 33-year-old Olympic record that, you guessed it, belonged to Flo-Jo in the process.

#6: 10.62s, Florence Griffith-Joyner (USA), 24 September 1988 in Seoul (KOR)

The Olympic record that Thompson-Herah beat had been set by Flo-Jo in 1988.

In the third heat of the quarter-finals in Seoul, she took an incredible 0.26 seconds off the time set just the race before by her teammate Evelyn Ashford.

She actually ran faster than the 10.62 in the final, crossing the line in 10.54 seconds, but the final took place in windy conditions that were over the legal limit to qualify for records.

#7: 10.63s, Shelly-Ann Fraser-Pryce (JAM), 5 June 2021 in Kingston (JAM)

The spate of fast times in 2021 actually began with Fraser-Pryce, as she and Thompson-Herah continuously pushed each other to go faster.

Fraser-Pryce, the Beijing 2008 and London 2012 champion over 100m, clocked 10.63 seconds at a Jamaican Olympic Association and Jamaican Amateur Athletics Association Olympic warm-up meet – which at that time put her only behind Flo-Jo.

=#8: 10.64s, Carmelita Jeter (USA), 20 September 2009 in Shanghai (CHN)

It's hard to believe that before Thompson-Herah and Fraser-Pryce sent times tumbling in 2021, the all-time second-fastest woman in the world Carmelita Jeter had held that position since 2009.

That year, the American became the fastest ever female runner not named Flo-Jo when she clocked 10.64 at the Shanghai Golden Grand Prix, just a week after she had gone 10.67.

It would be a position she held until Fraser-Pryce's run in Kingston.

=#8: 10.64s, Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM), 26 August 2021 in Lausanne (SUI)

This is the only time on the top 10 list in which the athlete did not win the race, which perhaps goes to show just how quick the Lausanne Diamond League race was in 2021.

Thompson-Herah started slower than usual out of the blocks, and although she made use of a healthy tailwind to close the gap to Fraser-Pryce, came home just behind her compatriot in the fastest one-two ever.

=#10: 10.65s, Marion Jones (USA), 12 September 1998 in Johannesburg (RSA), set at altitude

Before she became implicated in the Balco steroid scandal and fell from grace, U.S. sprinter Marion Jones was one of the fastest in the world.

At the 1998 IAAF World Cup in Johannesburg, South Africa, she took both the 100m and 200m titles – the former in 10.65 seconds.

She was already the second-fastest woman behind Flo-Jo at the time, but her 10.65 – albeit set at altitude – was the first time she had gone under 10.7.

=#10: 10.65s, Elaine Thompson-Herah (JAM), 9 September 2021 in Zurich (SUI)

Thompson-Herah concluded her incredible 2021 season with another top-10 time at the Diamond League Final in Zurich.

Her 10.65 in the Swiss city clinched the Diamond League title, as well as earning her a fourth spot on the top-10 list.