Gabrielle Thomas

Gabby raced track for Williston Northampton School for four years of high school, breaking numerous records and earning Most Valuable Player (MVP) honors every year. Thomas set school and Ivy League records in the 100, 200, and indoor 60 meters during her three years of competing at Harvard by winning 22 conference championships in six different events. In October 2018, she signed a contract with New Balance and discontinued her final year of eligibility for college. After Harvard, she relocated to Austin, Texas, where Tonja Buford-Bailey became her coach.

The Magnetic resonance Imaging (MRI) in 2021 detected a liver tumor, giving Thomas reason to be concerned, but it proved out to be a benign tumor. At the 2020 Tokyo Olympics, Thomas competed for the United States in the 200-meter event. Her performance of 21.61 seconds in the event in the United States Olympic trials on June 26, 2021, was the second quickest ever at the time, trailing only world record holder Florence Griffith-Joyner. Thomas won the bronze medal in the women’s 200 m with a timing of 21.87 on August 3, 2021, at the 2020 Summer Olympics in Tokyo, behind Elaine Thompson-Herah, a five-time Olympic champion, and Christine Mboma.

After the U.S. team advanced to the 4 x 100-meter relay finals three days later, on August 6, 2021, Thomas anchored the team in the final of the event. The team comprising of Javianne Oliver, Teahna Daniels, and Jenna Prandini as the other members clinched the silver medal, just behind Jamaica. Thomas kicked off her outdoor season in the Texas Relays in March 2022 with the fastest season opener by any 200m sprinter in history. She recorded the all-time quickest wind-aided time of 21.69 seconds (+3.1 m/s). She had won the 100 metres in 10.92 seconds barely 45 minutes before.

She is presently being coached by Tonja Buford-Bailey. Tonja Yvette Buford-Bailey is a retired American athlete who specialized in the 400 meter hurdles. Buford-Bailey began coaching men’s and women’s track and field Sprint and Relay at the University of Texas at Austin in June 2013. At the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign, she served as the women’s track and field team’s head coach. She is married to retired American football player Victor Bailey, and they have two kids together.

Her finest performance came at the 1995 World Championships in Gothenburg, Sweden, where she finished second in the 400-meter hurdles with a time of 52.62, just 0.01 seconds behind compatriot Kim Batten. That time remained Buford’s personal best and is remains the ninth-fastest mark in history. She clinched the bronze medal in the 400 metre hurdles at the 1996 Summer Olympics held in Atlanta, United States.

Desmond Thomas and Jennifer Randall welcomed her into the world on December 7, 1996. Her twin brother’s name is Andrew. Softball was initially her sport of choice, but in high school she shifted to track and field. She cites Allyson Felix as the inspiration behind her earliest memories of witnessing a track race as the reason why she began running. After receiving her PhD from Emory University in 2007, her mother, Randall, moved her family to the University of Massachusetts. In 2019, Gabby graduated from Harvard University with a degree in global health, neurobiology, and health policy. She pursued a master’s in epidemiology at the University of Texas at Austin.