My cousin, Olympian Gabby Thomas, refuses to let others define her
Hannah King and her older cousin Gabby Thomas pose for a family photo as kids. Courtesy of Hannah King
By Hannah King
I have a vague childhood memory of going to a photoshoot with my aunts and my older cousin, Gabrielle. I remember sitting on a stool in front of a black background with a flower in hand, looking down at it lovingly. I remember standing in front of a beach background with my hands behind my back, and I remember sitting on a bench with Gabby with her hand around my shoulder.
Years later, she became an Olympic champion.
The first time I saw her run was in the 2020 Tokyo Olympics. I was sitting in my aunt’s house, watching her race, not really understanding what was going on, or why this was a big deal, or why my aunt was screaming at the television. In 2024, I saw her run again, and I understood the hype. Here’s what I saw:
There was a gunshot. The crowd screamed as the fastest women in the world raced down the track, adrenaline rushing through their bodies. It was the Paris Olympics, and they were all racing for the gold medal in the 200-meter dash. Sweat beat down their faces and backs as they poured all of their focus into winning the race, into the finishing line. Anyone can see on their faces that they do not focus on the roar of the crowd or even the other ladies running with them. It is them, as individuals, racing for the gold, and only one would get it.
Gabby Thomas was straight-faced, focused, pumping forward on the track with long, powerful strides. Years and years of training had led to this moment – from running track at Harvard University, to setting records at the Track and Field Championships. But this was different. This race would make her an Olympic champion.
It’s hard for a mere onlooker to comprehend the pressure on Olympic athletes, especially with the whole world watching, but Thomas says you can’t focus on that when you’re competing.
“There is definitely an immense amount of pressure, but that’s where the focus comes into play,” she said. “You can see it on my face that I’m very focused and not thinking about anything else. Just me, in my lane, in my race. When you start letting the pressure get to you, that’s when you run into issues and start to lose races.”
But Thomas doesn’t have to worry about losing races. As she made the turn on the track, it became apparent who would be taking home the gold. She burst into tears as she crossed the finish line as an Olympic champion.
“It represents years and years of hard work,” she said about winning the gold medal.
Despite this immense accomplishment, she notes another moment of achievement as her favorite moment in her career.
“My favorite moment was when I won [the] NCAA [National Collegiate Athletic Association championship]. “It changed the trajectory of my life and it showed me that I was capable of being great. I proved something in myself that day.”
Thomas said that running at Harvard set the foundation of what she does today. She attended college to study neurobiology and pursue track. She says her experience at college was challenging at first, but once she found her community, she was able to find her footing.
“The Black community at Harvard was fantastic for me,” she said. “The athletic community at Harvard was a great fit for me. I learned a lot about myself, that I was capable of doing anything, even if it seemed really hard at first.”
She spoke more about her teammates at Harvard being like a family to her, how she was able to find community in athletics, and that made it easier for her to choose what she wanted to do in life.
Thomas’s work, according to her, is rooted in family.
“My family is my foundation, my biggest supporters,” she says. “My mom was a single mom, and she taught me how to work hard and to be driven. These are people who remind me of who I am.”
Thomas grew up with her parents Jennifer Randall (my mom’s sister) and Desmond Thomas, and her brother Andrew, in Atlanta and later, Northampton, Massachusetts. Thomas first played softball and soccer at Williston Northampton School before transitioning to track and field. At Harvard, she studied neurobiology and global health, and was acknowledged as a Most Outstanding Track Performer. Coming out of college, she began her professional training.
Almost overnight, Thomas became a sensation. In 2021, she took home the bronze medal at the Olympics; her winning time of 21.69 seconds was the fastest wind-assisted mark at the World Athletics in 2023; now, she is an Olympic gold medalist in the 200-meter race. As her career has taken off, her public profile has done the same.
“I think sometimes, it's really fun that people are interested and excited to talk to me, and sometimes you don't really know if people are interested in you for who you are or if they just want to talk to you because you're famous.”
She’s no longer just a “normal” person. “I’m always on,” she said. “I have to present myself a certain way because people are constantly watching and they have higher expectations of me.”
These higher expectations took an unfavorable turn this year as some people began to question her intelligence online. She had been at a basketball game when someone came up to ask her some questions. Perhaps her natural dialect spilled through; perhaps she used some slang someone didn’t understand; perhaps she was too relaxed, too chill, didn’t talk “proper” enough. Someone (user Dan Gernez) made a comment on Twitter about her sounding unintelligent, and she decided not to ignore it.
“As a public figure, you're very used to people criticizing you,” she said. “It just comes with the territory. But sometimes you gotta clap back a little bit. I responded and I said, ‘Well, I guess my Harvard degree means nothing’ or something like that. Like, Oh, you're right, I'm dumb. I went to Harvard. Random.”
But it didn’t stop there. Thomas said that the current political climate has contributed to people claiming she only got into Harvard because of Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) frameworks.
“It was disappointing to see how many people have kind of reverted back to this way of thinking that, you know, Black people are just handed things and that you cannot assume that a Black person is intelligent or has merit because they're Black,” she said. “And it definitely came off very racist.”
Though this revelation was deeply upsetting to her, she has hope that not everyone in the world thinks this way.
“I just want to be a testament to how far you can go and show that you can do whatever you want through hard work and resilience.” — Gabby Thomas
One would wonder, then, how a public figure such as Thomas would deal with such scrutiny and blatant disrespect. Most people would simply ignore the comments, or stay off social media entirely. But Thomas knows what’s good for her.
“I just choose to take a different perspective, and I genuinely believe that you don't receive that kind of criticism from people who are doing well,” she said. “Anybody who I look up to, anybody that I would take advice from, would never say anything like that.
“You just have to kind of get thick skin and feel confident in who you are. And I feel confident in who I am. And I know that I'm doing a great job. And so nothing anybody could say could really sway me or or hurt me in that way.”
Thomas states that if she had control over it, she would change how people viewed her.
“I like to use my platform to be an example of a Black woman doing things that are breaking barriers and being authentically myself, and showing that Black people can show up in any way,” she said. “They can go to Harvard and study science or they can be an athlete, they can talk a certain way, they can look a certain way. It doesn’t matter.
“I just want to be a testament to how far you can go and show that you can do whatever you want through hard work and resilience.”
Thomas can certainly do whatever she wants. She says that the future, for her, changes almost every day. She knows she wants to continue sports and training for championships and the next Olympics. After that, she wants to try something new.
“In theory, I would love to continue in health care,” she said. “Right now, I volunteer at a health care clinic in Austin, and so I would love to do that. And maybe have a nonprofit that helps increase access to health care for people who don't have it otherwise. I would love to continue supporting women's sports if I can, but really all sports.”
Thomas has been busy this year. She competed in the Texas Relays, where she ran in the 4x400m and 4x100m relays. At the inaugural Grand Slam Track championship in Jamaica in April, she placed first in the 200m and second in the 400m with a personal best time of 49.14 seconds. In May and June, she competed in the Miami and Philadelphia Grand Slams, where she placed first and second in the 200m, respectively.
Also, she got engaged to longtime boyfriend Spencer McManes earlier this year.
“I always feel like there's nothing I can't do because I continue to prove that through hard work and resilience, you can do anything,” she said. “And so we'll see where the next chapter leads.”
