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Mikaela Shiffrin, Allyson Felix, and others reacted to Gabby Thomas's monumental victory at the Michael Johnson-hosted Grand Slam Track. The inaugural event occurred in Jamaica on April 4-6, 2025, witnessing Thomas finish on top of the long sprint table with 20 points.
Fresh off her Olympic victory, Gabby Thomas entered the 200m lineup as a heavy podium favorite since she won her first gold in the same at the Paris Games. She faced Dina Asher-Smith and 400m gold medalist Marileidy Paulino but outpaced both in a time of 22.62. She next took the track in the 400m but faced defeat from Salwa Eid Naser, who finished in a world-leading time of 48.67s, leaving the former in second.
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The three-time Olympic gold medalist earned 20 points from both her events, standing atop the overall women's long sprints. She bagged a whopping $100,000 for becoming the Slam Champion in the first stop of GST. In a recent Instagram post, she reflected on her Jamaican stints and wrote:
"My first @grandslamtrack title!!! Women’s long sprints champ 🏆 1st place in the 200m with 22.62. 2nd place in the 400m with 49.14"
Anticipating the next stop, she wrote:
"See y’all in Miami"
Her post garnered praise from Olympians and world medalists from different sporting fields. The most decorated alpine skier, Mikaela Shiffrin, showed support to Thomas with a clapping emoji.
The most successful track and field athlete, Allyson Felix, joined forces and commented with clapping emojis as well.
Tennis icon Coco Gauff also hailed the Olympian, writing:
"congratulations"
Gabby Thomas will next compete in Miami on May 2-4 at Ansin Sports Complex.
Gabby Thomas revealed the reason behind choosing long sprints for GST in Jamaica
Gabby Thomas opened her 2025 season with the Texas Relays, setting a new meet record with her 4x100m relay team. Following that, she competed in the Michael-Johnson event, where she focused on the long sprints category.
In a post-race interview with CITIUS Mag, the Olympian shared that she and her coach, Tonja Buford-Bailey, mindfully decided to run 400m for the fun factor so that she gets enough experience for the remaining season.
"I mean it was a hard decision to make, obviously I can do the short sprints or the long sprints and my coach and I we just sat down and we made decisions on which slams we would do, which event groups. Ultimately, this one is earlier in the season, so, 400m a little more fun to run earlier in the season and then as you get later in the season kind of sharpening up and doing the speed world," she said.
The 28-year-old further added:
"But also ultimately, Miramar is a fast track of Miami and I want to get a good Hunter time so we did make a decision like that but at the end of the day it didn't really matter I was going to be a good competition no matter which of that group I ran no matter what slam."
Gabby Thomas received the Jackie Joyner-Kersee award by USATF following her success in 2024 Paris.
