Gabby Thomas addresses rumors of fighting with Sha'Carri Richardson: "People have this idea that every time we link, we fight physically"

Gabby Thomas has slammed the rumors of her fight with Sha'Carri Richardson, claiming that everything was okay between them. The two were rumored to have gotten involved in a "physical" fight during the relay camp for the 2023 World Championships, where they were part of the team that won the gold medal in the 4x100m relay.

Thomas and Richardson faced off on track for the first at the 2018 UIL Championships during their collegiate careers. It was the LSU sprinter who came out on the top and would continue to do so over the rest of their clashes over the 100m distance. Thomas holds a similar unbeaten record against Richardson in the 200m event.

The duo were poised to run together at the 2020 Tokyo Olympics before Richardson received a doping ban. They would get the chance to compete together two years later in Budapest, and while they went on to easily win the women's 4x100m relay title, rumors of a beef between the duo surfaced on the internet.

However, Thomas has now dispelled all the rumors of the fighting between the two. Speaking on the latest episode of the "Why Not Me?" podcast with Mike Jackson, she said,

"The worst rumor is me fighting at the relay camp... people love, they have this fake beef between and Sha'Carri Richardson and they just love it." [47:40 onwards]

When asked whether everything was "cool" between the two, the 28-year-old replied:

"Yeah, we don't train together so we don't know each other but we do relays together, so we're cool. But people have this idea that every time we link, we fight...like physical fighting. I hate it, I can't stand it."

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When Sha'Carri Richardson and Gabby Thomas were involved in a brief heated exchange on social media

The Olympic Games-Paris 2024 - Gabby Thomas and Sha'Carri Richardson in action (Source: Getty)

Sha'Carri Richardson was handed a one-month ban for usage of marijuana in 2021, which resulted in her being dropped from the U.S. Olympic Team. Following that, several fans were angry and wanted to boycott the Tokyo Olympic Games 2020. However, Gabby Thomas argued that the boycott of the Games hurt black athletes.

Thomas wrote on X (formerly Twitter),

“It really hurts to see so many black people choosing not to watch the Olympics this year. There are so many black athletes who have put in YEARS of hard work for this moment- myself included. We want your support."

The Harvard graduate's tweet didn't go down well with Richardson, who wrote in a now-deleted post on X (via The Mirror):

"Athletes that haven’t and will never beat me have a lot to say about or surrounding my situation. When most of them have said nothing to me showing their characters that y’all don’t see behind the races. The attention that is on track now and was because of very very few names. So if that’s where fans support lay, you can’t be mad at that.”

However, everything has been well between the two since then, as confirmed recently by Gabby Thomas. Richardson also spoke well of Thomas following their gold medal triumph at the 2024 Paris Olympics.