Who Are Gabby Thomas’ Parents and Siblings? Everything About the Track and Field Icon’s Family

“If I can just run, run well, and make my grandfather and my dad proud, then I’m doing my job.” This heartfelt declaration that Gabby Thomas once made shows her source of inspiration – her family. For someone who “grew up loving track”, and having the qualities that she has, to see her clinching 3 Gold medals in 1 Olympics is not a surprise.

At 27, she’s achieved much success. Being a 5-time Olympics medalist, and the first female NCAA sprint champion from Harvard. And it all comes down to her Jamaican roots. But how is she connected to Jamaica?

Who is Gabby Thomas’ father?

Well, her sporting Jamaican lineage comes straight from her father, Desmond Thomas. He used to be an athlete too, playing in the 1990s as a defensive back for the Duke University football team. Born in Jamaica, Desmond Thomas has been a proud supporter of his daughter throughout the years, despite separating from Gabby’s mother when the Olympian was just 4 years old.

Currently, he resides in Chicago away from Gabby and his mother, but that hasn’t meant he hasn’t been cheering his daughter on. After Thomas’ Paris Olympics victory, Desmond Thomas told TIME, “She (Gabby) did it for you, she did it for us, she did it for the ancestors, she did it for the culture, she did it for the USA, and the whole entire world.” He had the ‘Team Gabby’ t-shirt on that the whole Gabby Thomas entourage sported during the Paris Olympics.

A jubilant Desmond expressed, “Not only she did it, we did it, because she felt our energy.” And for his daughter, her accolades on the track definitely have her father’s influence. “Everyone knows that I am Jamaican because I do believe that that’s where I get my fast roots from. I’m just not going to sugarcoat it, that’s what it is,” Gabby Thomas told News Americas in August 2024, just weeks before she would land an unprecedented treble.

And while she credits her father for her talents, it is her mother who has taught her how to break barriers in life.

Who is the Paris Olympian’s mother?

Jennifer Randall was the perfect teacher Gabby Thomas could have had growing up. And her mother didn’t just teach her by words, but also through actions. When Gabby’s journey began in Atlanta, her mother was chasing her academic ambitions. Jennifer, a scholarly figure, pursued her education, culminating in a Ph.D. from Emory University, following which she moved to Massachusetts in pursuit of her career.

But there’s a catch. Jennifer Randall’s financial situation was not good at all. As Gabby said on the podcast ‘Why Not Me?’ with Mike Jackson: “My mom grew up dirt poor in Mobile, Alabama.” And it was always the case as she kept on making the move upwards. After separating from Desmond, who she met at Duke University, Jennifer Randall would push on to complete her Ph.D. while also taking up a teaching job.

She juggled multiple jobs, including waitressing and working at a daycare. Financial hardships were something that Gabby Thomas grew up in, but seeing her Herculean mother gave her all the inspiration she needed. “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,” Thomas shared with Olympics.com in June 2024. “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… I mean, that was a lot to watch.”

Jennifer Randall landed her bachelor’s degree in psychology from Duke University and currently is Dunn Family Endowed Professor of Psychometrics and Test Development at the University of Michigan. She served as an associate professor at the University of Massachusetts before this. The Paris Olympics Champion proudly said, “It really showed me what true work ethic was, and it showed me that you can achieve your dreams through hard work… [through that] and anything is possible.”

Her life itself built Gabby Thomas into the remarkable person she is today. Not just a star on the track, but an academic scholar with a master’s in epidemiology from the University of Texas.

What is Gabby Thomas’ parents’ nationality?

Jennifer Randall is American, while Desmond Thomas, as we have shared, is originally from Jamaica. He didn’t grow up in Jamaica, but he has been one with his Jamaican heritage. Sharing with News Americas, she said, “My grandfather is actually Jamaican. He lives there and he is from there and then my dad didn’t grow up in Jamaica, but he is Jamaican and he always liked to bring the culture home with me … um, make sure that I was proud to be Jamaican.”