The Tokyo Olympics was not the best of experiences for the competing athletes. The main reason for this was the ongoing COVID-19 pandemic which forced the athletes to follow numerous precautionary measures. Many athletes were not comfortable due to this, resulting in many terming it as the toughest Olympics they’ve been to. That wasn’t the case for American track star Gabby Thomas.

Emerging from relative obscurity, she gave a brilliant performance in the trials and qualified for the final event. There, she admitted to just enjoying the moment and not thinking much about the protocols. This attitude ended up helping her bag the bronze medal in the 200m. She was delighted with the result. “I was so excited to say that I was an Olympic medalist,” she said, later in an interview. Since then, people’s expectations and her ambitions have both increased immensely.

Last year, she won the silver medal at the World Championships in Budapest. This has increased her desire to add a gold medal to her tally. Furthermore, Toyota has televised an advertisement showing Thomas winning the 200-meter race in Paris. This has increased pressure on her due to the added weight of making this come true. She will thus be coming into Paris with a massive weight of expectations on her shoulders. But Olympic medalists rarely get beat down by pressure. She will likely rise on top of everyone’s expectations. Here’s more about Gabby Thomas.

Gabby Thomas’s childhood and education

Gabby Thomas was born on December 7th, 1996 in Atlanta, Georgia. Her father, Desmond Thomas, hails from Jamaica, while her mother is an African American woman named Jennifer Randall. She is a professor. Gabby also has a twin brother named Andrew. When Gabby was 11, they moved to Massachusetts for her mother’s new job as a professor at the University of Massachusetts. She excelled in sports from a very young age and took part in three different ones in high school which were softball, soccer, and track and field. Her love for athletics first came from watching Allyson Felix, an immensely accomplished American athlete.

She would then go on to set multiple school records and would complete the impressive feat of becoming MVP every single year. For many athletes, the education takes a back seat due to their sporting ambitions. But that was not the case for Thomas. She completed her undergraduate education from Harvard University in Neurobiology and Global Health.

Then, she went to Texas for her master’s and to be coached by Tonja Buford-Bailey. Her athletic accomplishments at Harvard University were also very commendable as she won 22 conference titles and set Ivy League records in 60m, 100m, and 200m. Finally, at the age of 18, she became a professional athlete after signing with New Balance.

Gabby Thomas’s athletic career

During the Tokyo Olympics trial, Gabby Thomas completed the 200m race in just 21.61 seconds. This was the second fastest figure ever in 200m. She immediately came into the spotlight and people awaited to see her performance in Japan. There, she didn’t disappoint as she won the bronze medal posting a time of 21.87 seconds. She also won the silver medal as part of the USA relay team in the 4x100m.

In the 2022 season, she recorded the fastest-ever season opener in the Texas relay competitions by putting up a score of 21.69 seconds through wind assistance. But the year would be affected by her torn hamstring injury. 2023 awaited much bigger things for her.

She posted her personal record of 49.68 seconds in the 400m category. On the 9th of July, she became a nationwide sensation as the national champion of the 200m sprint title. Then she would go on to win the silver medal in the 200m at the World Championships in Budapest and the gold medal in the 4x100m relay.

Now, she has qualified for the Paris Olympics with a record of 21.81 seconds in the 200m trial. All eyes are now set on her as she undertakes one of the biggest challenges in her career, to win the Olympic gold.