Harvard star benefited as much from summer internship with Hyams Foundation in Boston as she did racing in Europe, capping memorable year at Diamond League 200-meter final in Brussels

By Erik Boal, DyeStat Editor

Gabby Thomas spent eight weeks studying abroad last year in Senegal instead of pursuing international opportunities on the track following the NCAA Division 1 Outdoor Championships.

This summer, the Harvard standout and indoor collegiate 200-meter record holder has benefited from a pair of educational experiences, one in close proximity to campus working as an unpaid intern for the Hyams Foundation and another traveling to several European countries.

With a year of collegiate eligibility remaining, the 21-year-old Thomas maintained her amateur status throughout the summer racing against professionals in several Diamond League meets. Her success earned her the opportunity to compete again Friday in the Diamond League 200 final in Brussels, Belgium.

It will be the 43rd overall race in the calendar year for Thomas – 46th including three indoor races from December in Boston – and the 20th time she has competed in the 200, including setting the collegiate indoor record March 10 in College Station, Texas, by running 22.38 seconds to win the NCAA Division 1 title.

It will also be 83 days since Thomas placed second June 9 at the NCAA Division 1 Championships in Eugene, Ore., in contrast to her collegiate outdoor season that lasted 72 days. Including her indoor season, Thomas’ schedule will have stretched more than 270 days from the first race of her junior year to her last.

“It’s very mentally taxing. It’s one of the most mentally taxing things that I think I’ve ever had to do, this period of my life right now,” Thomas said. “It’s been very challenging just going to work every morning and then coming back here to train by myself when you’re so tired and you really don’t feel like it. But I’ve gotten through it. It’s the home stretch right now, I’m going to Belgium and having fun and then I’ll be done.”

But the work for Thomas hasn’t just been reserved for the track. Much like her desire to travel with other Harvard students for a life-changing experience last summer in Senegal, Thomas has also committed herself in recent months to help change lives in the communities nearby the Cambridge (Mass.) campus with her internship at the Hyams Foundation.

Founded in 1921 by Boston metallurgist, engineer and financier Godfrey M. Hyams to ensure that his money would be used for charitable purposes in perpetuity, his trusts were merged in 1993 into the Hyams Foundation, a private, independent group with a mission of increasing economic, racial and social justice and power within low-income Massachusetts communities in Boston and Chelsea.

“I’ve been able to work with them every week that I’m not in Europe, and whenever I’m not training,” Thomas said. “I’ve been very blessed to have such an understanding team and to have gotten the opportunity to work with someone who gets my busy schedule and supports my track career.”

Working with the foundation’s executive director Jocelyn Sargent and director of administration and finance Mark Paley, Thomas has devoted several hours on weekdays to a project designed to help create an expanded impact investment program for the foundation.

With a certain amount of finances the foundation is allowed to donate annually to charitable causes, Thomas has spent numerous hours researching and making presentations in support of a case that more money be appropriated for investments that give back to racial justice issues in Boston.

“What’s affected me the most, and this is very positive, is how inspiring it is to wake up every day and walk into a space full of people who have committed themselves to doing good work in the community,” Thomas said. “It’s inspiring to see people work hard and actively making a meaningful difference in the community. You don’t see this level of authenticity everywhere, so it’s a beautiful thing.”

Thomas is pursuing an undergraduate degree in neurobiology, but her experience with the Hyams Foundation has given the five-time All-American valuable insight into what career path she’d like to follow outside of running and follow her graduation.

“I’d like to go get a Masters in public health in the next couple of years and then go on to do something where this experience has helped me. I think that the work that the Hyams Foundation does is very fulfilling and incredibly important, so I really am grateful to have had this opportunity to grow as a person off of the track this summer as well,” Thomas said. “Last summer in Senegal was a huge opportunity for personal growth for me. This summer, I did want some more real-world experience, and I did find that. But I also found inspiration in this philanthropic line of work, and that has motivated me a lot.

“Like I mentioned before, I go to work every day with people who are working on things bigger than themselves, like racial justice issues, and who care deeply about other people. The project I’ve been working on this summer is a concrete example of something that can and will change people’s lives when it’s finished.”

Thomas has also gained a greater perspective on what the future potentially holds for her on the track after not only competing against veteran sprinters, but also interacting with professional athletes following races and during meals while in Europe.

“Because I’m just getting into this professional world and environment, I like to ask questions about the lifestyle and the decisions they made when they were collegiate athletes going into a professional setting. I also like to hang around and soak it all in,” Thomas said. “We all have the same meal times, so we all eat at the same place and you’re meeting them and eating with them and then you see them at the track. The professional athletes have all been really welcoming and nice and helpful. I feel very comfortable on the circuit and they’ve been very helpful with advice, especially the older ones, so it’s been really good.”

Thomas is still uncertain about whether she will compete her senior year at Harvard or forgo her remaining eligibility in order to turn professional.

But her performances in July, especially in Lausanne and London, validated that she is capable of racing against the world’s most talented sprinters, regardless of who she is representing next year.

“I don’t have any regrets or wish it went any differently. The European circuit itself has been so eye-opening and I’ve learned so much from it. I wouldn’t trade this experience for another experience, hands down. And I’m actually seeing the countries, which is something I made sure I did. I didn’t want to just stay in the hotel rooms,” Thomas said. “It’s been great to gain a real understanding of what it’s like to run professionally. I don’t think you can really understand it until you actually go do it. You hear professionals talk about it and how much different it is and how much harder it is, but you really can’t understand it until you’re actually living it, so that’s also something I’ve really picked up on.”

Jenna Prandini, the reigning U.S. outdoor champion and only American this year with a faster wind-legal 200 mark than Thomas, knows what it’s like to make the transition from being a collegiate star to competing against elite professionals following her career at Oregon.

Prandini, who ranks sixth in the world this year entering Friday with a wind-legal 22.16, has been impressed by the maturity and poise of Thomas, who is the No. 7 performer at 22.19.

“I think she’s done a great job of handling it all,” Prandini said. “She’s proven that she’s ready to compete at this level, especially with Worlds and the Olympics coming up the next two years.”

Thomas made an immediate impact July 5 in Lausanne by winning her first race outside of the U.S., prevailing in the 200 in 22.47.

“I remember being so in awe of the vibe of the meet. There were so many people in the stands and I was competing against these amazing women. The competition was unlike anything that I’m used to, so I was like, ‘Do I belong here?’ But my mindset was to just go run and have fun, because I know I had just gotten off the plane and I had no idea what was going to happen in the race,” Thomas said. “I had nerves out of control, it was my first meet traveling and all of these women had been doing this for so long and I’m not even out of college yet.

“But I also had the benefit of not having my money and my career on the line, so for me, I think that helped a little bit, because I could just focus on myself and not be worried about anything that all these other professionals are worried about. Because at that point, I’m just a collegiate athlete, I’m still in the NCAA, I’m still going to go back to Harvard, no matter what happens in the race, it doesn’t really matter for me.”

Thomas became the first American female athlete to win the 200 in Lausanne since Allyson Felix in 2015. She also became the first U.S. women’s sprinter to win a 200 race on the Diamond League circuit in more than a year, with Tori Bowie prevailing at the 2017 Prefontaine Classic in Eugene, Ore.

“I ran it and I had so much fun and it turned out really well. The energy of the crowd was unreal. The only thing I could really compare it to is probably the Olympic Trials when I was a freshman. But I was just a freshman at the time, so I wasn’t expected to do anything special,” Thomas said. “It was a really special meet, and I’m just so happy that my first meet on the circuit ended up going so well and it was really encouraging.”

Following a pair of fourth-place finishes in the 200 in Morocco and the 100 in Switzerland, Thomas competed July 22 at the Muller Anniversary Games in London, taking second to Prandini in the 200 by a 22.16 to 22.19 margin in a race that produced wind-legal lifetime bests for both athletes.

It marked the first time since 2015 in Birmingham that a pair of American athletes took the top two spots in a women’s 200 race at a Diamond League meeting.

“I was thinking that was my last meet because I didn’t know if I was going to come back for the second half of the season at that time, so I just wanted to lay it all out on the track because it’s the very end of the season and I’m so excited to have an offseason,” Thomas said. “I think it was just my competitive drive that drove that race. If you look at the race, my first 100 was not the best and I didn’t even know how far behind I was, to be honest, because I was just so focused on my own race. But the only person I saw in front of me was Jenna, so I was like, ‘Let me see if I can get her,’ and I really turned on the jets.”

Although Thomas ranks as the No. 2 American 200 performer all-time indoors, the effort in London finally elevated her into the top 25 wind-legal competitors in U.S. outdoor history after she opened her collegiate season March 31 with a wind-aided 22.13 at the Clyde Littlefield Texas Relays.

“Everything in that race was just mental and competitive drive. The entire technique wasn’t where it needed to be, but I’ve learned that sometimes you’ve just got to run fast and not worry about overexecuting and overthinking the competition and what you’re doing,” Thomas said. “Sometimes you just have to will it and you’ll run fast, and that’s something I have to remember, because if you try to overexecute, it will mess up your race.”

Thomas has raced just once since London in preparation for the Diamond League final, resulting in several lonely afternoons training on the Harvard campus after working earlier in the day with the Hyams Foundation.

But her ability to make it through indoor, outdoor and post-collegiate seasons healthy while still competing at a world-class level has been a testament not only to Thomas’ physical preparation, but her mental toughness and discipline, attributes that will continue to be beneficial throughout her running career.

“It is really challenging for me to motivate myself, especially on a day-to-day basis when I’m not on the road. But what I keep telling myself is that I’m having so much fun right now and when I get to the competition, it’s so important for me to have prepared myself,” Thomas said. “I keep reminding myself that what I’m putting in now, I’ll get what I want out of it later. That’s been my mindset the entire season, so I know that it will pay off.

“I came in thinking that in the fall and it was difficult because you don’t have competitions to really motivate you from week to week, so you’re just motivating yourself. It’s the same thing here. If I motivate myself now and push through it, I’ll really appreciate that I did that later.”

But the greatest appreciation Thomas will have in Belgium is being the only collegiate athlete on the starting line at the Diamond League final, allowing her to cherish one more memorable moment in a year filled with significant snapshots on and off the track.

“I did what was best for me this summer,” Thomas said. “I’m just blessed to have the experience that I’ve had and I know that I’m in a very unique place right now, especially as a collegiate athlete who hasn’t even declared being professional yet. It’s a very unique opportunity for me and everything has just gone so perfectly and I’m so thankful for everyone who has been a part in helping me have this experience. I’m so eternally grateful for it all. It’s been amazing.”