On the second Tuesday of the 2024 Olympic Games, American runner Gabrielle “Gabby” Thomas became a maiden gold-medal winner with a decisive victory in the women’s 200-meter sprint. She held off St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred—who had won the 100-meter final a few days earlier—and another American, Brittany Brown, who finished third.
To those in Paris’s Stade de France and to the millions more watching on livestreams, there was a magnetism in Thomas’s stage and screen presence. In her star-affirming dash, she retained a preternatural cool more often associated with red carpets than race tracks.
To use a very online term: Thomas has serious aura.
Born in Atlanta, raised in Northampton, Massachusetts, and now based in Austin, Thomas, 27, had won bronze in the 200-meter three years ago in Tokyo (along with a silver in the 4x100 relay). She’s collected gold at the world championships, too, but her halcyon turn in Paris is the culmination of years of patience and dedication. That is to say, Thomas has long been a marquee figure in the sport—and she has an impressive résumé outside of athletics, too, having earned her master’s degree in public health from Harvard—but she is now a global name.
Below, and ahead of the next few days’ relay events, Thomas hopped on the phone with Vogue to discuss what was—or wasn’t—going through her head during the race, a bit about her volunteer work in health care, and getting a surprise call from Snoop Dogg.
Vogue: Congratulations, Gabby! How are you feeling at this moment, a day after your big win? Has it sunk in?
Gabby Thomas: It’s sinking in now. At first, I was completely in shock and disbelief and not really understanding what had happened. But now I’ve had some time to reflect on it, and it really is just such an amazing feeling. I’m just so happy and thankful and proud of all the time and work that has been put into this, both on my behalf and on behalf of my community and my team.
Do you remember the very first thing that came into your head after winning?
[Laughs.] What a great question! The first thing that came into my head after winning was: I want to find my friends and family. It was like, Okay, I just won, I did it, this is great, but, like, where are they? I want to go celebrate with them.
For sure. And in Stade de France especially, it’s so massive and there are so many people, I can imagine it’s a bit overwhelming.
I was so focused and tunnel-visioned on what I was doing, I blocked out everything else. And just coming back into reality, seeing the photographers everywhere, getting the flag—yes, it was disorienting!
With that race in particular and with all your training, are you on autopilot when you run? Or do you calibrate along the way?
In a race like that, with such high stakes and high pressure, it really is autopilot. I do remember in my prelim race and my semifinal race, I was very focused on execution. But in the final, I envisioned that race in my head so many times that I felt like I could have run it with my eyes closed. And when it came time to do it, it was autopilot. I can’t even remember what I was thinking or where I was in the race until the last few meters of it! So it was really just letting my body do what I had trained and prepared it to do.
Since last night, have you had any memorable fan reactions? Or any surprise DMs?
My favorite was Snoop Dogg calling me right after. I was going into anti-doping, and he called to congratulate me and tell me how happy he was for me! That was really exciting and funny.
We love how much of an Olympics fan he is.
I love it too. I love the support.
We took note of your chic watch and jewelry game out on the track. Tell us a little about your race-day style.
What I love about track and field is that style and personality are kind of embedded in our culture. People can express themselves—they can wear their hair how they want, their makeup, their jewelry. I think mine is a really classic style, and my partner Omega really complements that. At the final I chose to wear my Constellation watch, which I love, and it’s also gold. I thought, I’m going to manifest this gold medal right now and put on this gold watch. It’s definitely my vibe. You look good, you feel good, you run good!
What is a day off like for you? What do you like to do most in your free time?
Oh man. Life for me off of the track is just very, very normal. I like to hang out with and walk my dog. I live in Austin, which is a very outdoorsy and chill, fun city to be in. I’m on the trails, grabbing coffee, going to all the lakes. Very normal, relaxing things. Austin also has a really great food scene.
Do you still have a Harvard group chat? How are they reacting back in Cambridge?
I probably had at least 20 people from Harvard come out to support from the track team, just because it’s such a close and great community. We’re all uplifting each other, and that’s such a beautiful part of Harvard. And there’s a huge group chat going on right now. They’ve definitely been celebrating.
Tell us a little bit about your volunteer work in health care and what your goals are in that field.
For now, I am still working at a volunteer health-care clinic and giving back to my local community in the ways I can. Making a tangible difference and seeing it every day has been really fulfilling. As for the future, I’ll continue my track career and maybe wrap up my track career in five or six years. Then I’d like to continue in that space and maybe run a nonprofit.
What areas do you cover at the clinic, out of curiosity?
I’m a director of the hypertension-prevention program. We have a panel of patients who are prediabetic or hypertensive, and we monitor them closely and make sure that they’re getting all the medication and appointments they need and communicating about their current lifestyle and any problems. It’s about maintaining a close relationship that transcends, in some ways, the traditional patient-doctor relationship. So that’s what I do! I work with and train the volunteers, and we keep the program running.
That’s amazing. Lastly, ahead of the final days of these Games: Does winning the 200-meter change anything with your preparation for the relays?
Absolutely. It definitely takes a weight off my shoulders. After winning, I just feel like a lot of the pressure has been lifted. I can go and have fun. We’re all in high spirits and in a good place to work together and get the job done.