sailed to a commanding victory in Tuesday’s women’s Olympic 200-meter race in Paris, securing her first significant career triumph.
Julien Alfred, the new 100-meter champion from Saint Lucia, finished second to Thomas with a timing of 21.83 seconds. Brittany Brown, Thomas’ teammate, took home the bronze in 22.20 seconds.
The first American woman to win an Olympic short sprint championship since childhood idol Allyson Felix won the 200m at the 2012 London Games is 27-year-old Thomas, who was third in the Tokyo Games three years ago.
Alfred of St. Lucia was aiming to complete an Olympic sprint double following her impressive victory in the 100 meters on Saturday.
But Thomas, the fastest woman in the world this year over this distance, was in no mood to let her date with destiny slip.
The Harvard-educated sprinter exploded out of the blocks and ran a superb bend to open up a sizeable lead coming into the home straight.
The American’s strength and finishing power never looked like waning as she powered over the line to claim a deserved gold.
“It’s unbelievable, as winning an Olympic gold medal is beyond what I could have ever imagined,” she exclaimed. However, I am also aware of how much work I have put into achieving it.
“This has been six years in the making, head down, working hard, going to extremely hard meetings, pushing yourself, and now it’s here and I’ve done it. I’ve never been happier than I am right now.
Thomas had entered the Tuesday, 6 August final as the favourite, but that didn’t temper her outpouring of emotions as she crossed the finish line first in front of 100m gold medallist Julien Alfred of Saint Lucia (22.08) and Thomas’s fellow American Brittany Brown (22.20).
At Tokyo 2020, Thomas walked away with a bronze (200m) and silver (4x100m), but the gold of her dreams was elusive.
This night, though, would be different.
