Gabby Thomas rolled through the finish line in the biggest race of her life and claimed a bronze medal she didn’t think she’d win. It was the greatest moment of her career, and she beamed as she clutched the American flag. 

But there were no fans in the stands. There was no roar from the crowd. No lap around the track and no high-fives and hugs. A socially-distanced podium. No family from home watching her run in her first Olympics. Martha McCullagh, her high school coach at Williston Northampton, had been planning on attending the Games, but couldn’t, and watched Thomas run on TV.

This summer, fans are back in the Olympics and so is Thomas, now the top contender for the 200-meter gold.

“I keep reminding Gabby that,” her coach Tonja Buford-Bailey, a three-time American Olympian, said. “I’m not going to say it wasn’t the real Olympics but it wasn’t the normal Olympic experience. That’s a whole different thing.”

When Thomas emerged to win the U.S. Olympic trials ahead of the Tokyo Olympics three years ago, she was a relative unknown to the national stage. She had broken the NCAA indoor 200 record in 2018, but she didn’t come from a track and field powerhouse. She attended Harvard, a school that had never won a medal in women’s track and field.

In Paris, she enters the 200-meter final Tuesday at 3:40 p.m. with golden expectations. She opened her 2024 Olympics on Sunday, easily winning her first-round heat with a time of 22.20 seconds. Thomas was in heat two and ran out of lane No. 5. Next up, she will need to get through the semifinals on Monday ahead of Tuesday’s showdown.

Thomas holds the three fastest 200 times of the year and won the Olympic trials in the 200 for the second time. Jamaican sprinter Elaine Thompson-Herah, winner of the last two Olympic golds, pulled out due to injury, giving Thomas an inside lane to upgrade her bronze to gold. Jamaican Shericka Jackson, winner of the last two World Championships, was also expected to be a top contender before she also pulled out of the 200 just before Sunday’s first round heats.

Thomas turned pro in 2019 after three years and 22 titles at Harvard and moved down to Austin, Texas to work with Buford-Bailey and her training group of professional runners. Buford-Bailey liked Thomas’ height and speed and saw a runner that reminded her of herself, an aggressive and confident competitor.

But she also had to convince Thomas, who had recently graduated with a degree in neurobiology and global health and health policy, that she could make a good living with track.

“When you’re that smart and you have those kinds of degrees and that kind of background education-wise, you’re always like ‘I have so much to fall back on,’ which is true. Very true,” Buford-Bailey said. “But I’m like ‘you don’t need that fall back right now. You can use that fall back on the back-end and make this track thing really special.”

But Thomas wasn’t quite done with her schooling. While training full-time with Buford-Bailey, she also earned her master’s of public health at the University of Texas. When she competed at the Tokyo Games, she was midway through her studies.

On top of her coursework, she also volunteered with a local clinic for uninsured patients with hypertension. Thomas still volunteers there part-time when she can, and has stated her desire to enter the healthcare space when she retires from track. She’s said she’d like to run a hospital or a health equity non-profit organization, and wants to start a foundation dedicated to increasing healthcare access.

She scheduled all of her commitments around track.

“I would forget she’s in school,” Buford-Bailey said. “She’d be like ‘I have class today’ and I’d be like ‘huh?’ That’s how easily she managed it.”

Thomas usually trains daily with the Buford-Bailey Track Club from 10 a.m. to 1 p.m., before a smoothie and some lunch. Two days a week, she drives to the weight room for an hour of afternoon lifting.

After five seasons of work with Buford-Bailey, Thomas is now the veteran of the group. And since earning her master’s degree in 2022, she’s been able to focus more on her overall health, diet, sleep and time management, Buford-Bailey said.

But compared with the relatively attention-free leadup to the Tokyo Games, the leadup to the Paris Games has been anything but. 

“If they’re coming out to the track and you’re on your feet for four, five hours and you’re doing a [photo] shoot, that’s stuff that gets in the way,” Buford-Bailey said. “Your competitors aren’t doing that.”

Buford-Bailey estimated Thomas is engaged in some sort of endorsement activity almost every day. She’s featured in Netflix’s documentary series “Sprint” and has appeared in commercials for companies like Toyota and Eli Lilly at the Paris Olympics. The commitments became so frequent that Thomas and Buford-Bailey sat down and put a calendar together. 

For so many reasons, this Olympic experience is a new one for Thomas. She’s one of the faces of Team USA, and finally, three years later, her fans will see her run in person. McCullagh will be there cheering her on. And Buford-Bailey knows she’s prepared.

“I’m glad she was able to get that (2023 World Championships) experience in because that’s what helps you moving forward,” Buford-Bailey said. “So the Olympics won’t feel unfamiliar. She had the pressure of the trials, so now you know what the pressure feels like too. She’s had all these smaller experiences to get her ready for the big stuff.”