On the second Tuesday of the 2024 , American runner Gabrielle “Gabby” Thomas became a maiden gold medal winner with a decisive victory in the women’s 200-meter sprint. She held off St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred—who had won the 100-meter final a few days earlier—and another American, Brittany Brown, who finished third.
To those in Paris’s Stade de France, and to the millions more watching on livestreams, there was a magnetism in Thomas’s stage and screen presence. In her star-affirming dash, she retained a preternatural cool more often associated with red carpets than race tracks. To use a very online term: Thomas has serious aura.
Born in Atlanta, raised in Northampton, Massachusetts, and now based in Austin, Thomas, 27, had won bronze in the 200-meter three years ago in Tokyo (along with a silver in the 4 x 100-meter relay). She’s collected gold at the world championships, too, but her halcyon turn in Paris is the culmination of years of patience and dedication. That is to say: Thomas has long been a marquee figure in the sport—and she has an impressive resume outside of athletics, too, having earned her master’s degree in public health from Harvard—but she is now global name.
Below, and ahead of the next few days’ relay events, Thomas hops on the phone with to discuss what was—or wasn’t—going through her head during the race, a bit about her volunteer work in healthcare, and getting a surprise call from Snoop Dogg. I think it’s sinking in now. At first, I was completely in shock and disbelief and not really understanding what had happened.
But now I’ve had some time to reflect on it, and it really is just such an amazing feeling. I’m just so happy and thankful, and proud of all the time and work that has been put into this. Both on my behalf and the behalf of my community and my team.
[ ] What a great question! The first thing that came into my head after winning was: I want to find my friends and family. It was like, OK, I just won, I did it, this is great, but, like, where are they? I want to go celebrate with them. I was so focused and tunnel-visioned on what I was doing, I blocked out everything else.
And just coming back into reality, seeing the photographers everywhere, getting the flag—yes, it was disorienting! In a race like that, with such high stakes and high pressure, it really is autopilot. I do remember in my prelim race and my semifinal race, I was very focused on execution, but the final, I mean..
. I envisioned that race in my head so many times to the point where I really feel like I could have run it with my eyes closed. And when it came time to do it, it was autopilot.
I can’t even remember what I was thinking, or where I was in the race, until the last few meters of it! So it was really just letting my body do what I had trained and prepared it to do. I think my favorite was Snoop Dogg calling me right after. I was going into anti-doping and he called to congratulate me and tell me how happy he was for me! That was really exciting, and funny.
I love it, too. I love the support. What I love about track and field is that style and personality is kind of embedded in our culture.
People can express themselves—they can wear their hair how they want, their makeup, their jewelry. I think mine is a really kind of classic style, and I think my partner Omega actually really compliments that. I chose to wear my Constellation watch at the final, which I love, and it’s also gold.
I thought, I’m going to manifest this gold medal right now, and I’m going to put on this gold watch. It’s definitely my vibe. You look good, you feel good, you run good! Oh, man.
Life for me off of the track is just very, very normal. I like to hang out with and walk my dog. I live in Austin, which is a very outdoorsy and kind of chill, fun city to be in.
I’m on the trails, grabbing coffee, going to all the lakes. Very normal, relaxing things. Austin also has a really great food scene.
I think I probably had at least 20 people from Harvard come out to support from the track team, just because it’s such a close and great community. We’re all uplifting each other, and that’s such a beautiful part of Harvard. And there’s a group chat ongoing right now.
They’ve definitely been celebrating. For now, I am definitely still working at a volunteer healthcare clinic and giving back to my local community in the ways that I can. Making a tangible difference, and seeing it every day, has been really fulfilling.
As for the future, I’ll continue with my track career, and maybe wrap up my track career in five or six years from now. Then I’d like to continue in that space and maybe run a non-profit. At the clinic right now, I’m a director of the hypertension prevention program.
We have a panel of patients who are pre-diabetic or hypertensive, and we monitor them closely and make sure that they’re getting all the medication that they need, the appointments they need, and communicating about their current lifestyle and any problems that they might have. It’s about maintaining a close relationship that transcends, in some ways, the traditional patient-doctor relationship. So that’s what I do! I work with the volunteers and I train them and we keep the program running.
Absolutely. It definitely takes a weight off of my shoulders. After winning, I just feel like a lot of the pressure has been lifted.
I can kind of go and have fun. We’re all in high spirits, and we’re all in a good place to work together and get the job done..
