In the 200 meters on Tuesday, Gabby Thomas turned her Tokyo bronze into a Paris gold. And on Friday in the 4x100 relay, Thomas turned her Tokyo silver into another gold, as the Americans won with a time of 41.78 seconds under a steady rain at the Stade de France.

The former Florence resident now holds four career Olympic medals – two golds, one silver and one bronze.

Silver medalist Great Britain’s time of 41.55 on July 20 ranked as the best time of the year coming into the race, but the U.S. held the next three best times and entered the 4x100 relay final as the No. 1 qualifier in lane No. 5 after Thursday’s heats.

Thomas had a bit of a hiccup in her qualifying heat and in the final on both of her baton passes, but anchor runner and 100 silver medalist Sha’Carri Richardson passed Great Britain and Germany on the home straightaway to secure the gold medal.

HERE COMES SHA’CARRI RICHARDSON!

Team USA takes GOLD in the women’s 4x100m. #ParisOlympics

📺 NBC & Peacock pic.twitter.com/ZM6qaYCQOw

— NBC Olympics & Paralympics (@NBCOlympics) August 9, 2024

The American team of Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Thomas and Richardson improved their baton passes from the heats to the finals and cut their time from 41.94 seconds to 41.78 seconds. Thomas ran the third leg in both the heats and the final after running the anchor leg in Tokyo.

“I was thinking (Terry) and I have been through this before,” Thomas said after the heat on Thursday. “I trust her, we talked about it before we went out there. I think we were both coming in really fast. We both did really well at relay camp and we’ve raced really well, so we’re going to make some adjustments and I have faith that we’re going to get it done tomorrow.”

On Tuesday, Thomas blew past the field to win gold in the 200. While the five runners behind her were separated by just 0.16 seconds, Thomas distanced herself from silver medalist Julien Alfred by 0.25 seconds.

Though Thomas started her track career at Williston Northampton School as a 100 runner – and won five New England titles in it – she began to prioritize the 200 in college and in her professional career. She trains with three-time U.S. Olympian Tonja Buford-Bailey and a crew of sprinters, and they typically run the 100, 200 and 400 in practice.

The Americans have now won the 4x100 relay 12 times, including three of the last four golds.

Thomas moved to Florence in 2007 when her mother, Jennifer Randall, took a professorship at UMass. At the insistence of her mother, she started running track in seventh grade at the Williston Northampton School, and immediately flashed the natural speed that earned her a gold medal on Tuesday.

After graduating from Williston in 2015, Thomas chose Harvard over an array of national track powerhouses and won 22 Ivy League titles in three years of competing for the Crimson before turning pro and moving to Austin, Texas to train with Buford-Bailey and her all-Black, all-female running group.

Thomas graduated with a degree in neurobiology and global health and health policy from Harvard in 2019 and then earned a master’s degree in public health at the University of Texas in 2022.

Thomas also volunteers part-time at a hypertension clinic for uninsured patients. When she retires from her running career, she said she’d like to run a hospital or a health equity non-profit organization, and she wants to start a foundation dedicated to increasing healthcare access.

After her 200 victory, the New Balance hospitality house hosted Thomas and over a hundred family and friends for an afterparty filled with “lots of hugs, lots of pictures, lots more hugs, a few tears, lots of laughs,” Thomas’ track coach at Williston Martha McCullagh said. 

But at that afterparty Tuesday night, Thomas knew she had to prepare for the 4x100 heats Thursday and the final Friday. Now that she’s through with her Olympic events – and with a perfect two-for-two gold medal record – Friday night’s afterparty should bring a new level of excitement.