EUGENE, Oregon — After the women's 200-meter final was over and she secured a spot on the U.S. Olympic team, McKenzie Long said she heard something very strange from Gabby Thomas.
“She said she had a dream about me,” said a beaming Long, clutching a bouquet of white and purple flowers and wearing a bronze medal around her neck. “She was like, ‘Yeah, I had a dream about you being an Olympian.’ I was like, ‘You wouldn’t tell me this until we were standing here on this line.’”
Thomas said she didn’t want to ruin the dream, so she kept it to herself until after the race. But Long — ahead of perhaps the biggest race of her life, in her best event, with a chance to make it to Paris — could have used the anxiety relief.
That proclamation from Thomas, Long suggested, could have worked wonders before the race. Because faith in an idol does wonders for self-confidence.
“I literally tell her all the time, 'I want to be you.' She's inspiring,” Long said. “That's my goal. I want to be like Gabby Thomas.”
It took Thomas some getting used to, this new skin she's in. The one with expectations. The one with experience. The one on the marquee.
Sometimes, she said, she wishes she could slip back into an earlier normality, when it was just the running and the simple camaraderie of the sport. Those days are over.
“Great athletes are under pressure, and I just understand that. And so, if I want to be a great athlete, if I want to be among the likes of Sanya (Richards-Ross), Allyson (Felix)… you just have to compete under pressure and accept that that’s part of it.”
Thomas, 27, is embracing the increasingly high pedestal she stands on. Saturday's 200-meter final was a confirmation of her elite status.
She beat all comers in 21.81 seconds, including Sha'Carri Richardson. And that's two-tenths of a second slower than her best time. In one of the most highly praised events in sprinting, Thomas is America's best figure.
Gabby Thomas (center), Brittany Brown (right) and McKenzie Long all qualified for Team USA in the 200 meters in Paris. (Christian Petersen/Getty Images)
So she’s ready for stardom. The franchise’s material is coming into its prime. She already has two Olympic medals: bronze in the 200 and silver in the 4×100 relay in Tokyo. Last year she won silver in the 200 and gold in the relay at the world championships. Gold in the 200 in Paris, with the likely chance of another in the relay, would take her to another stratosphere of the nation’s consciousness.
Thomas has the total package. She has an aura that people like. She is marketable. She has the kind of depth that makes her platform purposeful. She has seniority and respect.
That's why college superstars like Long try to make their dreams come true in her image.
“It's really humbling,” Thomas said. “I remember feeling that with other athletes that I saw. At my last Olympic trials, I felt that with Allyson Felix. I felt that with Jenna Prandini, who I still run against. … So when a younger athlete looks at me and says that, it feels so surreal. But it makes me happy. It really feels like it gives me purpose.”
The most important thing is that Thomas is excellent.
The 5-foot-9 Atlanta native, originally from Florence, Mass., is a refined elegance on the court. The efficiency of her form and grace of her stride can make it feel like she’s not running all that fast. Speed doesn’t look as labored as Thomas runs, but it’s no less explosive.
Now she has experience on her side. She can feel the benefits.
“Actually, yeah, and I'm so grateful for that,” Thomas said. “Because there's a lot more pressure when you've already got medals, when people know your name. But it's also reassuring to know, 'Okay, I've done this before.' I just feel that maturity. I'm like, 'Okay, I'm going to do it and I'm not going to let the nerves get to me.' And that's a feeling you just can't explain, but it's so reassuring to know that.”
Long knew what was going on. The Ole Miss sensation liked her chances when she saw the court layouts. Not just because Court 7 is a pretty good combination of a looser curve and field vision. But because Thomas was in Court 8.
“I wanted to stay on top of Gabby’s hip,” Long said. “I knew once I did that, I would position myself the way I wanted to.”
Long drove Thomas to a time of 21.91 seconds to finish third, just behind Brittany Brown's 21.90. Richardson — America's 100-meter champion, who had looked dominant in the 200 leading up to the final — finished fourth in 22.16. While her bid for the 100/200 ended in a double, Richardson will still be one of the big attractions in the United States when she makes her debut in Paris, partnering the ever-popular Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone.
Thomas will join them.
But this star was not born, not in the traditional sense of a moment that gave birth to its brightness. This star was forged, cultivated.
An important part of this evolution, which brings her to this point, is that Thomas wants it.
She didn’t always do that. Track was about the love of running and personal growth. She loved what the competition brought out in her, the development and improvement. As she improved and became a major player in the sport, the attention was just a byproduct she had to endure.
Greatness at this level is an investment. Where she’s going, based on this trajectory she’s been on since Harvard, required internal permissions. Because of what it extracts and what it exposes her to, Thomas had to include that in her goal.
She has. Now she is ready. She has matured to the point where she believes she can handle the spotlight of stardom, the pressures and burdens that come with its glory. The only thing left is to win on the biggest stage. She believes it is her time.
“I definitely feel like a veteran at this point,” she said, “but I also feel like I haven’t reached my full potential yet. I feel like I can still do it. I feel like this is my year.”
GO DEEPER
Gabby Thomas: The American track and field athlete with a purpose greater than just Olympic medals
(Top photo of Gabby Thomas and McKenzie Long embracing after qualifying for Paris in the 200 meters: Patrick Smith/Getty Images)
