Clad in a custom creation that fused Olympian strength with runway drama, the 3x gold medalist commanded the carpet like it was her lane in the final stretch. Eyes followed, cameras flashed, and whispers turned to buzz: Gabby had come to the Met Gala. But her fashion statement was not done yet, the true headline was yet to come. Days later, she delivered the powerful news, debuting in the Sports Illustrated Swimsuit Issue. Now, while she stuns the internet with her beauty, her focus is to send out a message. What’s that?
“To me this is more than a swimsuit shoot-it’s about representation and showing that you can be both strong and sexy,” read the text on Gabby Thomas’ Instagram story as she posted herself posing on a beach in a silver swimsuit. Her hands were behind her neck, a subtle flow in her hair. She wrote, “Thank you @si swimsuit for celebrating so many athletes.” In 2025, SI is taking in many sportswomen with them. These include Anna Hall, Ali Truwit, Cameron Brink, Caroline Marks, Eileen Gu, Jordan Chiles, Nelly Korda, Suni Lee, and Toni Breidinger.
All of them have been photographed by Ben Horton in Boca Raton, Fla., for the 2025 SI Swimsuit Issue. Take a tap on the scene and you will see her posting another picture of herself, everything the same, but a different pose. She stands with her upper body turned slightly toward the camera, one arm raised and bent at the elbow as her hand lightly touches the side of her head, creating a soft frame around her face. But once again, rather than grace, her goal was to send out a message, and she once again wrote, “I hear a lot of girls talk about how they are afraid to work out because they don’t want to get too ‘bulky’ or it will ‘mess up their hair”
The Olympian continued, “I want to push back on that. Our bodies as women are capable of amazing things!! Strength is beauty.” She had also been vocal about body positivity in her interview with SI. She talked of being torn between wanting to look too masculine and strong, and also wanting to maintain a feminine look, and also be thin. There as well she sent out a message to the young girls, she advised them not to worry about what society thinks about their body. Not to worry about what society tells them their body is for. That’s for them to decide, and they can do amazing things with it.
When these words come from Gabby Thomas, people may better listen to them, because the woman hasn’t only been subjected to online trolls for multiple reasons, but she has also voiced out and fought it as well.
Gabby Thomas faced racism over her education
Now, as good a runner as Tomas, the academic version of her is no less. A 2019 Harvard graduate in neurobiology and global health, she later earned a master’s in epidemiology from the University of Texas. She set eight track records at Harvard while excelling in her studies. Neuroscience professor Ryan Draft praised her as an exceptional student-athlete, stating, “To see a person excel at the highest level in academics and athletics is truly unbelievable.” But for some, it’s undigestible.
A wave of online criticism from MAGA supporters crashed upon the Olympian, who questioned whether she truly earned her Ivy League degree. The backlash started after she posted a courtside photo from the WNBA’s 3×3 Unrivaled league, which led to a series of racist and unfair comments aimed at her. One user on X mocked Gabby Thomas’s intelligence, leading her to respond sarcastically, “You’re probably right, darn my Harvard degree.”
The situation quickly escalated as more commenters joined in, claiming that her acceptance into Harvard and her academic success were not deserved simply because she is Black. Addressing the wave of racism head-on, Thomas wrote, “Today, on Jan 26, 2025, there are hundreds of people commenting on my Twitter page that specifically because I am Black, they must assume I did not earn my admission into Harvard, nor did I earn my diploma. Is this real life??” What do you think of her responses? Justified or not?
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