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Olympic champion Gabby Thomas has recently revealed the career path that she would have taken had her mother not pushed her to track and field.
Olympic champion Gabby Thomas recently opened up about her unexpected journey to track and field, revealing that the sport wasn’t her initial choice.
In an interview with New Balance, the decorated 200m champion shared that she almost pursued a completely different athletic path before her mother’s influence steered her to success on the track.
After an extraordinary 2024 season, where she dominated at the Paris Olympics, Thomas reflected on how track and field came into her life by chance.
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"I originally chose softball. I wanted to do it with my friends,” Thomas explained via Sportskeeda.
“Track and field was not my first love, soccer was. My friends were doing softball, so I signed up, but my mother had another idea. You know about Black households, you don’t really get to talk back.”
It was her mother’s firm guidance that pushed her to try track and field, a choice Thomas has since come to appreciate deeply.
Looking back, she expressed gratitude for her mother’s decision.
“Mom, I want to thank you so much for forcing me to do track and field. Thank you. You knew what you were doing.”
Now a triple Olympic gold medalist, Thomas has not only excelled but also developed a profound passion for the sport.
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“I think I ended up choosing track because you can always get better, you can always improve, you can always be a better athlete, be a better version of yourself, and that’s such a beautiful thing about track and field,” she said.
“We can count medals and we can count wins, but you’re always kind of racing yourself, so I fell in love with that.”
At the 2024 Paris Olympics, the 27-year-old competed in the 200m, 4x100m, and 4x400m relays, bringing home gold medals in each.
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