Jennifer Randall comes from meager means. Toiling around in Mobile, Alabama, little Gabby was just 10 years old when her mum decided to relocate to Massachusetts to finish her PhD and continue teaching. Seventeen years on, Gabrielle is now a successful sprinter with an Olympic 200m bronze medal, a Harvard undergrad, and a University of Texas postgrad degree… all along, picking up everything in the shadows of her mum. She likes to call it the “underdog mentality.”

As much as her mother would like, Gabby has put a pause on her plans to do a PhD. For now, she has dotted her mind on a singular goal: 21.34 seconds. Gabby Thomas will look to surpass this and shatter Florence Griffith-Joyner’s mighty 1988 record. On the flip side, in the wake of the Paris Olympics, there are emotional challenges that, more often than not, are overshadowed by the entertainment factor. Well, in Netflix’s Sprint: The World’s Fastest Humans, Randall provided a powerful and unfiltered look into the emotional rollercoaster of being a parent of a competitive track star.

When Gabby Thomas broke the world lead, she asked her mother, Jennifer, “How are you feeling during the championships?”

“It’s very stressful. I have to sit there in that room with all those people and they’re not all rooting for you.

“They’re rooting for other people. Which makes me want to fight them. Every last one of them. I’m just supposed to sit there and not throw something at them when they cheer for somebody else?” the mother questioned, while Gabby Thomas laughed.

Well, what world lead are we talking about? Thomas won the 200m at the USA National Track and Field Outdoor Championships in July 2023 with a world-leading time of 21.60 seconds. She outclassed Shericka Jackson, who had clocked a 21.71, which was the fastest of the season. Jackson later set a new world lead of 21.41 seconds in August 2023.

But coming back to Thomas’s mother, Jennifer, has made it clear how difficult it is for family members when they see the crowd cheering for a different athlete.

Interesting Fact: Gabby Thomas didn’t take track and field seriously until she watched former Olympian Allyson Felix compete in the 200m race on television. Her mother had urged her to watch it.

Regardless, Gabby Thomas, Brittany Brown, and McKenzie Long will represent Team USA in the women’s 200m in Paris. But unlike Brown and Long, Thomas has Olympic experience. At the Tokyo Olympics, she won silver for the 4 x 100m relay and a bronze for the 200m. However, none of this would have happened without the support of her mother.

Gabby Thomas: Her mother’s perseverance paved the way for Olympic dreams!

A young Gabby has closely observed her mother’s sacrifices, drawing inspiration for her own path in athletics. In an exclusive interview with The Guardian on Friday, she recalled, “I think watching her as I was growing up and how hard she worked, that’s impacted me in ways that I probably can’t even recognize… Watching her be a single parent without two pennies to scrub together and working her way up and to being what she is now, a successful professor living out her dreams and starting a non-profit to help people get education.”

Despite facing financial hardships as a low-income, single mother, Jennifer Randall was determined to provide Gabby Thomas with a solid education. “That instilled an underdog mentality in me,” Thomas reflected. No doubt, she keeps making her mother proud.

On July 20, Gabby Thomas once again made her mother proud by winning the 200-meter race at the London Diamond League with a time of 21.82 seconds. This victory only adds to her impressive record and strengthens her as she prepares for her second Olympic Games.

As Gabby Thomas gears up for the Paris Olympics, the stage is set for a blockbuster showdown with Shericka Jackson. Gabby Thomas is ready. She even summed it up perfectly when she said, “I ran a crazy 200 last year, and she ran a crazy 200, so now it’s time for both of us to come and see what happens.”