Gabby Thomas helped get the U.S. back into the gold medal lead over China at the Paris Olympics on Tuesday. She stunned in the women’s 200-meter final, finishing first with a 21.83, defeating St. Lucia’s Julien Alfred and U.S. teammate Brittany Brown.
After crossing the finish line and realizing she had won her first ever Olympic gold, it was all about the American flag.
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Gabrielle Thomas celebrates winning the women’s 200m final. (Jewel Samad/AFP)
“There is nothing like getting that flag after you cross the line and you see the coach right there with it and everybody’s going crazy and America’s watching, it’s just such an amazing moment,” Thomas said in a video interview with local Atlanta station 11 Alive.
The sight of the American flag was one of the few things that Thomas even allowed her mind to acknowledge after completing the sprint, she said in an interview with Vogue.
“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!” Thomas said.
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Gold medalist Gabrielle Thomas celebrates by ringing the bell after winning the women’s 200m final at the Paris Olympics. (Michael Steele/Getty Images)
Thomas had the flag draped around her shoulders as she rang the Olympic bell on Tuesday.
“It was incredible, it was so much fun, and it really just drove it home that I have an Olympic gold right now,” Thomas told reporters of ringing the bell.
As a lifelong American, Thomas was born in Atlanta, grew up in suburban Massachusetts, where she graduated from Harvard before taking her education to Texas. She got her master’s degree in epidemiology at the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston after studying neurobiology and global health at Harvard.
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Also at Harvard, she won 22 conference titles in six different track events 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.
Gabrielle Thomas competes in the women’s 200m final. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
She had previously won bronze and silver at the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, but appeared to be a different threat this year when she ran the fastest 200-meter time in the world for 2024 at 21.78 seconds at the U.S. Olympic Trials semifinals in June.
She lived up to her impressive time with a big win for her country in the women’s 200-meter semifinal in Paris, as the U.S. looks to maintain its gold medal lead over China.
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Thomas’ gold is one of five that the U.S. has earned in track and field so far in this Olympics, with 16 medals overall.
The U.S leads China in total gold medals 25-24 at the time of publication.
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