Gabby Thomas celebrates winning the women’s 200-meter final during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Aug. 06, 2024 in St. Denis, France. (Photo by Getty Images)

ST. DENIS, France – Gabby Thomas couldn’t recall the 200 meters she ran before she became an Olympic gold medalist.

“I actually blacked out for the race,” Thomas, the 27-year-old Massachusetts native, began. “…It’s the most bizarre feeling when you get into a flow and you get into that energy where nothing else matters but the finish line. As far as I was concerned, I was the only one in that race.”

The race was never close. Thomas fought Saint Lucia’s Julien Alfred and Great Britain’s Dina Asher-Smith for the first quarter of the race, but never had a contender through the latter half. She took the lead 80m into the race and didn’t relinquish it as she strode strongly off the bend, decidedly in the lead.

Thomas, who chose to forego her final year of NCAA eligibility at Harvard in 2018 in order to turn pro, still earned her degree in neurobiology in 2019. She was inspired to study neurobiology by her brothers, Desi and Andrew. Desi has autism and Andrew, Thomas’s twin, went to neuro-feedback therapy for ADHD in high school.

She wasn’t done with school in 2019, however, as she continued to value education as a way to build herself beyond running. She completed her Master’s Degree in Epidemiology in 2023 at the University of Texas, where Thomas resides to train with the Austin-based Buford-Bailey Track Club.

Thomas’ gold medal win in Paris makes her the first Harvard graduate to earn a gold medal in a track and field event. She also has two medals from the Tokyo 2020 Olympic Games – a silver from the 4x100m relay and a bronze from the 200m. Her podium finish here gives Thomas her third Olympic medal.

Thomas has a real shot at a world record within her career. She’s the fastest 200m runner since the world record holder, Florence Griffith-Joyner, set the mark of 21.34 seconds in 1988. Thomas’s 200m race in the U.S. Olympic trials in 2021 was 21.60 – the second-fastest time ever run by a woman in the 200m. Her time to win gold on Tuesday was 21.83.

She crossed the line with eyes closed and both hands on her head, the magnitude of Olympic gold just beginning to settle in.

Brittany Brown celebrates winning bronze in the women’s 200-meter final during the Olympic Games Paris 2024 on Aug. 06, 2024 in St. Denis, France. (Photo by Getty Images)

“I did not expect to feel how I felt when I crossed that line,” Thomas said. “You prepare for this moment and you train so hard for this moment, but when it actually comes, it’s indescribable. I couldn’t believe it. I mean, 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.”

Winning Olympic gold meant defeating the recently crowned 100m champion lurking in lane eight – Alfred. Alfred took silver on Tuesday, but was the world’s fourth-best 200m runner entering the race with a personal best time of 21.86 seconds. All 200m finalists boasted a sub-22 second personal best except two – Ivory Coast’s Jessika Gbai and Great Britain’s Daryll Neita.

USA’s Brittany Brown broke through the 22-second barrier and ran her personal best of 21.90 seconds during U.S. Olympic Trials in late June. Brown rode that wave all the way to the Olympic 200m final in Paris, where she sprinted into a bronze medal finish.

“It has been a long journey to get back on the track, to get back training,” Brown said. “Coming back from injury last year, it was very, very hard.”

Brown worked through a sports hernia that kept her off the track until February of this year.

“I think sometimes when athletes have injuries, it’s like a mental game that you’re playing with yourself,” Brown said. “How am I going to get back? You know, it’s an Olympic year and I missed two, three months of training. Like is it actually going to happen?”

For Brown, it finally did. The bronze medalist out-leaned Asher-Smith for third place, running her 200m in 22.20, just two hundredths of a second faster than Asher-Smith’s 22.22.

“I’m just so grateful that I can be a vessel,” Brown said through tears. “I’m so grateful I can be here and be in this moment…It’s hard when life is hard. It’s hard when you deal with injuries and it feels like no one’s looking at you…It’s not about me. It’s about my team. It’s about people who look like me who go through stuff like me.”

The two sprint stars ended their nights wrapped in the Stars and Stripes – both with flags draped over their shoulders, and the approval of the American fans populating the crowd at Stade de France cascading down the grandstands to meet them in their victory.

Madie Chandler is writing for Team USA as a graduate student in the Sports Capital Journalism Program at Indiana University Indianapolis.