Olympic Sprinter Gabby Thomas Is a Triple Threat: Brilliant, Beautiful and Wicked Fast
Gabby Thomas is having a hearty laugh.
It’s mid-October and rumors surfaced that the sprinter was headed to the Big Apple to run the TCS New York City Marathon. But the highly decorated athlete, who, at 26, already has four medals from the Olympic Games and World Championships, assures us she’s only attending as a spectator.
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“I’m going there to support the athletes and hang out with the New Balance team. I have a couple of friends who are running, but I am definitely not — at all,” said the New Balance-sponsored track star, chuckling at this most preposterous of ideas. “Maybe one day — maybe a half-marathon long after I retire.”
And retirement for Thomas — who gamely posed for her FN cover shoot last month on a track near her home in Austin, Texas — is far in the distance. In fact, she’s only getting started.
“I feel like I am really trending upward in my career. I have become a mature type of athlete and I’m at a point in my career where I feel very strong, very confident,” said Thomas. “I understand myself as an athlete and I understand the sport more. I feel secure going into the Olympic year.” (The 2024 Summer Olympic Games will take place in Paris, July 26–Aug. 11.)
This year, alone, Thomas has turned in some stellar performances both on and off the track.
At the 2023 World Athletics Championships in Budapest in August, she claimed a silver in the 200 meters with a time of 21.81 seconds. And then went on to win gold as part of Team USA in the women’s 4×100-meter relay final.
Additionally, earlier in the season, at the Texas Invitational in Austin, she secured a personal record in the 400 meters with a time of 49.68 seconds, besting her previous PR from May 2021.
All this while also completing a master’s degree at the University of Texas at Austin in the spring.
For Thomas, the wins this year are even more meaningful as they represent a comeback story. Last year, she was sidelined by a grade 2 hamstring strain that prevented her from qualifying for the U.S. team at the 2022 World Championships.
But she is not a woman who is easily deterred. “I always talk about the medals for our country and winning and the attention, but you can’t just do it for that; there has to be this intrinsic desire, to go better myself, to be the best athlete I can be, to want to see improvement every day. That’s what gets me out of bed.”
And while she admits to having days where she’s unmotivated, those are the moments when training and discipline kick in. “The motivation isn’t really what wins you medals. It’s the discipline that wins the medals,” Thomas said.
Gearing Up
At the 2024 Olympic Games in Paris, Thomas will face tough competition in the 200 meters from Jamaica’s Shericka Jackson. In Budapest, Jackson defended her world title with a time of 21.41 seconds — just .07 off the world record set by Florence Griffith-Joyner in 1988. Another top competitor in the 200 is American Sha’Carri Richardson, who took home bronze at the event.
“The world records are being eyed in a lot of the women’s events right now, especially the sprints,” said Thomas. “That’s definitely on my mind and I’m aware of it. But right now, I’m thinking about what I can be doing to just better myself and keep medals in the U.S.”
Next year, the country’s hopes for gold will be pinned on Thomas.
USA Track & Field, the national governing body for running sports, noted that she is the second-fastest 200-meter runner the U.S. has ever seen, behind only Griffith-Joyner. “We’re excited at the potential of seeing Gabby on another Olympic team and looking forward to what’s in store for 2024,” said a spokesperson for USATF.
And if you ask Thomas, she’s ready to bring it home. “My goal is to win gold. I feel like I’m there mentally. I feel like I can get there physically,” she said.
Her sponsor, New Balance, will be behind her all the way. “Simply put, she is one of the best female sprinters globally. Her performances on the track alone make her a standout sensation,” said Pete Riley, head of running sports marketing at New Balance. “An Olympic 200-meter bronze in Tokyo put a stake in the ground as a world-class athlete and a contender for major championship medals for years to come.”
Former Olympian and Saysh founder Allyson Felix, who specialized in the 200 for more than a decade, also expressed confidence in Thomas’ ability to succeed next year. “Gabby had a great year and delivered an exciting performance at the World Championships. It was especially impressive coming back from injury,” said Felix. “I think she will continue to shine in 2024 and be a huge asset to the USA with her combination of speed, strength and versatility.”
The Prep Work
When FN spoke with her last month, Thomas was in the middle of a six-week off-period, but was due to begin her preseason training on Nov. 1, to start preparing for the U.S. Olympic team trials in Eugene, Ore., in June.
“[Preseason is] just about getting in volume — so a lot of running, establishing a base. That way we’re strong and we’re not getting injured,” said Thomas.
She noted that the biggest challenge in the preseason is making sure she peaks at the right time — which is not at the Olympics but at the trials. “That’s very unique to our country because we have so much talent,” she said. “You have to be at your best just to get on the team, and then you have to maintain that for the next month or so for the Olympics.”
In terms of distances, after her strong showing in the 400 meters earlier this year, Thomas is thinking of moving up to that event at the trials. But she’s still fully dedicated to the 200: “I don’t even think I’ve hit my full potential in it yet. I just keep getting better at it each year.”
Aside from the physical is the mental preparation. Thomas recognizes that the 2024 Summer Games will be very different from her first Olympics in Tokyo, which were held mid-pandemic with no spectators. “In Tokyo, there was nothing — nobody was there. We finished our races and we didn’t have to do anything. It wasn’t this huge, distracting, like, craziness. [Budapest] was my first time experiencing that, and I do think I learned a lot from it,” she said.
Over recent years, many sports and entertainment pundits have noted the declining importance of the Olympics among Americans. For instance, the Tokyo Games were the least-watched primetime Olympics on record, with an average 15.6 million viewers per night across NBC’s television and digital platforms.
But with the 2024 competition set in a centrally located city (so her family and friends can actually watch it live), Thomas is hopeful the games can again serve as a unifying moment. “People didn’t feel like they could celebrate the Tokyo Olympics properly because of all of the craziness around it,” she said. “Now I think it’s going to bring the world together in a good way.”
Academic Ambitions
Thomas’s achievements on the track are only one part of her lofty accomplishments. She’s also excelled in academics.
After completing her undergraduate degree at Harvard University, studying neurobiology and global health, she this year received her master’s in epidemiology and health care management from the University of Texas Health Science Center.
“Track is a big part of my life, but it’s not my entire life. I think it’s important for us to have some a balance,” said Thomas, who was raised in Massachusetts and relocated to Austin in 2019 for grad school. “I’ve been passionate about health care and health disparities all through college, and that continued after I graduated. Part of me moving to Austin was finding a city where I could find a great group of teammates to train with and also a great grad school.”
When she’s not training with her coach, three-time Olympian Tonja Buford-Bailey, Thomas works at the Volunteer Healthcare Clinic in Austin that provides services to uninsured and under-resourced individuals.
Those efforts have gained her the respect of Felix: “Not only is Gabby a phenomenal talent on the track, but her interest in global health and wanting to make a contribution there is something I really admire about her.”
Throughout her educational journey, Thomas said New Balance has been a key partner. She ran in their shoes in high school, and the brand was a sponsor of Harvard’s track team. So when they came to Thomas with a multiyear contract in 2018, she called it a “no-brainer.”
“It’s actually a partnership in every sense of what that means, instead of just a transactional influencer or brand relationship. There’s this real synergy,” said Thomas.
Riley agreed: “Every time we look at any athlete, we try to take the time to get to know who the athlete really is. Likewise, it’s important that an athlete truly understands who we are and what we stand for.”
Thomas credits the brand with helping fuel her goals on and off the track. “When I signed with them, I still had one year left of undergrad at Harvard, and they knew that I had ambitions of getting a master’s degree and supported me in that. It meant a lot to me,” she said.
In turn, Thomas has been integral to New Balance’s product development and marketing efforts in running, becoming a well-known face for the brand at a time when sneaker companies are putting a bigger emphasis on the female athlete. Since 2022, she’s appeared in ads for its Fresh Foam X 1080 line and was featured in the Conversations Amongst Us campaign with lifestyle collab partner Joe Freshgoods.
And together, they’ve made an impact at the clinic where she works. New Balance said Thomas has used her charitable donation to provide supplies to the clinic, and during the state’s ice storm emergency in 2021, New Balance worked with Fleet Feet Austin to get the clinic footwear.
Using Her Platform
In addition to New Balance, Thomas has brand relationships with Omega, Toyota and Delta. And through her Instagram account, she also helps highlight issues around health and wellness, for instance as part of Indorsia Pharmaceutical’s “Seize the Night and Day” campaign promoting the importance of sleep.
For Thomas, she hopes to use her public platform to inspire the next generation of young women. “Everything that I do, I try to be well intentioned and understanding that I have a following and people are looking up to me,” she said. The message she wants to put out into the world is to embrace your excellence: “Work hard. Don’t let people put limits on you. Do what you’re passionate about and be great at it.”
She’s also eager to see more people embrace running and applauded New Balance’s recent inclusive messaging around the sport. In March, the athletic brand launched its Run Your Way global campaign, which aimed to legitimize running no matter the distance or pace and recognize all types of athletes.
“That’s the kind of thing I would love to see more of, instead of this idea of one particular type of person — one really fit running type — always being projected out into the media,” said Thomas. “That can be intimidating for people and sets in your mind, ‘Well, running is not for me, I just can’t do it.’ Shifting that representation has been incredible.”
As for her own comfort level as a role model in the sport, Thomas said that right now, it feels natural. “It’s happened in such a gradual way and for very positive reasons — for being excellent in sports and academics. And that’s true to who I am. That’s my authentic self,” she said. “So if that’s what people are paying attention to, and that’s the side of me that people are watching, then yeah, I’m very comfortable with that.”
Launch Gallery: Gabby Thomas: The FN Cover Shoot
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