'All of it was for this moment' - Gabby Thomas on the sacrifices she had to make to ascend to the top

'All of it was for this moment' - Gabby Thomas on the sacrifices she had to make to ascend to the top

Evans Ousuru 21:59 - 30.01.2025

Olympic champion Gabby Thomas on the sacrifices she had to make to get to where she is now.

Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas' career is one that has been marked by patience and perseverance even amidst storms.

The three-time Olympic champion reflects the hard yards she had to put in the face of adversity to ensure she becomes a global sprints icon. While she isn't the most accomplished Track and Field female athlete, her success is visible even to the most unobservant dullard.

The icing on the cake was her performance at the 2024 Paris Olympic Games. According to the Daily Mail, after winning the 200m, Thomas told reporters at the Stade de France, "This is six years in the making at least. All of it was for this moment. My coach told me everything we've done up to this point - Tokyo Olympics, World Championships, even my injured year 2022 - it was for this, so that I was prepared and I was mature and I was ready."

Thomas achieved the quickest wind-assisted mark of all time at 21.69 seconds (+3.1 m/s) in 200m three years ago. In 2022, Thomas, 28, experienced an injury-plagued season that ruled her out of the World Championships on home soil after she tore her hamstring just weeks before the USATF Championships.

Thomas, the Tokyo Olympic 200m bronze medallist, felt relieved after fulfilling her life-long dream of being an Olympic champion, describing her success as unbelievable. "I never would have imagined in my wildest dreams that I would become an Olympic gold medalist and I am one and I'm still kind of wrapping my head around that," Thomas added.

The American is set to compete in the inaugural Michael Johnson founded Grand Slam after she was confirmed to have signed up in November 2024. Thomas will hope to upgrade her silver at the 2023 World Championships to gold in this year's version of the Games set for Tokyo.