With a time of 21.83, Gabby Thomas won the gold medal in the women’s 200-meter final at the 2024 Paris Olympics on Tuesday, Aug. 6, solidifying her status as one of the fastest athletes in the world.
The 27-year-old athlete previously took home a bronze medal in the women’s 200-meter and a silver medal in the women’s 4×100-meter relay during her Olympic debut at the Tokyo Games in 2021. She also ran as part of the gold-medal-winning 4×100-meter relay team at the 2023 World Athletics Championships.
But being an Olympian is just one of the many remarkable aspects of this star sprinter from Northampton, Massachusetts. Along with her track accolades, Thomas holds a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University and a master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas Health Science Center.
In a press conference following her victory, she said, “I want to inspire the youth… to find their passions and be successful. I want young girls to look at us [medal winners] as strong female athletes and feel like they can do it, too.”
But as Thomas told NBC News, she credits her success to “basically running track part-time” and “having other things in my life that helped fulfill my goals and make me feel fulfilled.”
In the months leading up to the Games, Thomas trained three to six hours a day, but in the evenings, she volunteered at a healthcare clinic in Austin, serving people without insurance.
Here’s everything to know about Team USA’s track star, whose pursuit of gold is apparently an intense “side hustle.”
