8 Things to Know About Gabby Thomas, the Harvard Grad Who Just Won Gold in the 200m

But college wasn’t all studying for Thomas—it’s also where her track career began in earnest. According to her official Olympics profile, she won a whopping 22 conference titles in six different track events while she was a student and became the first NCAA sprint champion in Ivy League history with a winning time of 22.38 seconds in her now signature 200-meter race. Thanks to her performance in that same event at the Paris Games, Thomas is the first Harvard grad to win a gold medal in the Olympics for track and field.

4. She *really* prioritizes her sleep.

As part of her master’s program, Thomas wrote a paper on sleep epidemiology—how different populations sleep and the barriers to good sleep faced by Black people, in particular. So you could say she’s super familiar with the importance of clocking quality shut-eye. “It is most definitely the most important part of my training, and I can’t stress that enough,” Thomas told AP News. She reportedly begins her sleep routine by 8 p.m. most nights, turning off all her digital devices.

5. Thomas volunteers at a clinic for people who don’t have insurance.

Further proof of her passion for health equity, Thomas also began volunteering at Volunteer Healthcare Clinic (VHC) when she was completing her graduate program and has continued to support the free and charitable clinic while training for the Olympics.

To others, it might seem like a burden to tack volunteer work onto an already busy training schedule, but Thomas told Olympics.com that she loves “having something completely different to focus on.” Not to mention the opportunity to help others, which she says she is “so grateful to be doing.” During her shifts, Thomas reportedly calls patients to be sure they attend their appointments and follow doctor’s orders like monitoring their blood pressure, and she surveys them on their experiences at the clinic. She told NBC News that in the future she’d like to run a hospital or nonprofit to expand access to health care.

6. She had a health scare before the Tokyo Olympics.

Shortly before Thomas headed to the Olympic Trials for the Tokyo Games in 2021, she got an MRI of her lower back in search of answers about hamstring pain. What the doctors found was a tumor on her liver—though it wasn’t clear if it was cancerous. While undergoing additional tests and awaiting more clarity, she continued to train, which she reportedly said was “crazy mentally.” The good news came just before she headed to Eugene, Oregon, for the Trials: It was benign.

As she told The Washington Post, she had made a promise to God during the period of uncertainty: “If I am healthy, I’m going to go out and win Trials.” And that she did, with a nearly record-breaking time of 21.61 seconds—her personal best, until she shaved off a hundredth of a second for a 21.60 finish at the USA Championships in 2023.

7. Her boyfriend is cheering her on in Paris.

Thomas isn’t lacking when it comes to a support squad at the Games: Her SO, Spencer McManes, has been spotted in Paris in a “Team Gabby” shirt along with his sister and parents. According to Town & Country, the two have likely been dating since October 2022 and probably met in Austin, where Thomas has lived and trained during and after wrapping up her masters. (As for McManes? He was once a college athlete himself, playing on Yale’s football team.)

8. She’s a proud dog mom to a pug named Rico.

In the “hobbies” section of Thomas’s Olympics profile, it just mentions Rico, which is honestly icon behavior. She told Women’s Running that she adopted the dog when she moved to Austin and didn’t have any people friends yet, and she called him her “savior” during tough times in her grad program or on the track. Luckily for us, Rico has his own Instagram account. Unluckily for him, it doesn’t seem like he got to make the trip to Paris with her.

You can likely catch Thomas running once more at the Paris Games in the 4×100-meter relay on Thursday, August 8, though the lineup is not yet officially announced.

SELF is your one-click source for all things Summer Olympics. Read our latest coverage of the Paris Games here.

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