Harvard graduate Gabby Thomas on how an injury has shaped her anew: 'I became a different athlete'

The plan was in motion: After her Tokyo 2020 bronze medal in 2021, Gabby Thomas would aim for gold in the 200m at the 2022 World Athletics Championships, which were set to take place on home soil in the U.S.

She was the lone sprinter to beat Shericka Jackson in the race during the season - and held the world lead weeks before U.S. nationals.

But then came a devastating hamstring pull. A favourite for the world podium, she didn’t even make the U.S. team for Worlds.

“It was just really hard; devastating,” Thomas, 26, told Olympics.com in an exclusive interview. “I was coming from that momentum from the Olympics and feeling so good. I felt like I was on top of the world.”

Her plot to challenge for the world title had disintegrated.

But it also did something unexpected: It changed Thomas’ approach as Paris 2024 came into view.

“I feel like I became a bit of a different athlete,” she said of the injury process, which left her on the sidelines watching Jackson claim the world title in Eugene, Oregon.

“I took all that for granted,” she said of being on top of the sport. “I saw how quickly it can be taken from you, which is really eye opening. I have definitely become a more mature and meticulous athlete in what I'm doing.”

Gabby Thomas: Chasing gold in Budapest

Thomas isn’t afraid to say it now: She’s running for the top of the podium at Worlds this week in Budapest.

She again holds the world lead in the event, but this time her time (a 21.60) is from the U.S. Championships, where she re-claimed her title (beating Sha’Carri Richardson in the process) and out-running Jackson by 0.11 just hours after the Jamaican had clocked a 21.71.

“That's my goal,” she said of a world win. “I already have a bronze medal from the Olympics. So, yeah, my goal is next to be a gold medallist at the world championships and at the Olympics.”

Having felt like she was doing the right work in the lead up to her injury last season, the hamstring pull was a catalyst for change she didn’t know she needed.

“I've had two years since the Olympics to really get myself together as an athlete and figure out what it's going to take to be the gold medal contender,” she said.

“I know that I'm capable,” she continued. “But it’s going to be a matter of taking the right steps and doing everything right. We might make some mistakes, but how do you learn from that and move forward? And while I do expect this will be a learning process for me, I also do have the expectation that, yes, I'm still capable of getting a gold medal.”

Gabby vs. Shericka vs Sha'Carri: Not shying away

Athletes will often tell you their only focus is themselves: In track and field, it’s about staying in your lane; not worrying about what other people are doing.

Thomas doesn’t buy into that notion.

“I think all of us are just excruciatingly aware of what other athletes are doing in our space,” Thomas said of her competitors, including Jackson and Richardson. “It adds a lot of pressure, but that being said, I think the pressure is a good thing.”

While the Thomas-vs.-Jackson-vs.Richardson headlines can be tantalizing, the women’s 200m at Worlds is a who’s who in sprinting: New 100m world champ Richardson has been surging in the event; while Dina Asher-Smith, Julian Alfred and others look to factor into Friday’s (25 August) final.

“Having a rivalry is really important to how I approach my own training and how I approach competition... it's not an easy path for me,” she said. “It's not going to be easy, like having the medal being given to me. You’re going to have to work really hard on that day.”

Thomas empowers herself with such a challenge by reminding herself during hard practices and training sessions that she will be lining up next to said rivals in what she hopes is a world final.

It’s a daily mantra, she said.

“I treat each day as if that's about to happen... because it is,” she explained. “I know it adds fuel; that pushes me. And at the end of the day, I’m grateful to have that type of competition because we do bring out the best in each other.”

Gabby Thomas: ‘I’m very determined’

Having gone to Harvard for her undergrad degree, the Olympic headlines blared during Tokyo: An Ivy League genius is now an Olympic medallist, too.

Thomas said they made her laugh.

“I’m really not that smart,” she said, chuckling. “Well, like, maybe a normal amount of smart.”

Instead, she reasoned, what had taken her to one of the most sought-after universities in the world was instead hard work and more hard work, a value instilled by her mother, Jennifer Randall, who had earned a doctorate and become a professor after growing up in what Thomas described as “extreme poverty.”

“My mom has always, always been very vocal and passionate about education and working really hard,” Thomas said. “I understood that education was the way to equal the playing field.”

“When you just have that work ethic kind of built into you, you can apply it to anything that you set out to do.”

Over the last year, Thomas earned her master’s degree in public health from the University of Texas in Austin, where she now trains, and is focusing on working with disadvantaged populations – namely women of colour – to address access issues for their healthcare needs.

For Thomas, it’s about following her passions and setting goals from there, the hard work following suit once she’s clear of the path that she wants to take.

A year after that hamstring injury, the golden dreams remain. But what 12 months ago appeared to be a grave misfortune now has only fallen into her wheelhouse: A problem to fix; something that had to be addressed by work – smart work.

And hard work.

“With track, it applies very nicely: There's a direct parallel between working hard and putting in effort and seeing those results on the track,” she said. “It's just right there. Naturally I fell in love with track because when you're hard working person, you see the results immediately on the track.”

“It's quantified right there for you.”

Quantified, she hopes, in the form of a gold medal around her neck, too.