Track Star Gabby Thomas Recalls Tumor Scare Before Tokyo Olympic Trials

Gabby Thomas experienced a major health scare just three weeks before the Tokyo Olympic trials in 2021.

“I did have a slight hamstring injury strain, and I got a routine, like, MRI for that,” Thomas, 28, explained on “The Squeeze” podcast on Wednesday, August 13. “And in the MRI, they found a mass on my liver that honestly, for me, like, I read so many health research papers. I remember thinking, ‘It’s probably fine.’ I think most people have masses in their bodies that they will never be aware of because they don’t get MRIs as frequently as athletes do.”

However, the track and field athlete told hosts Tay and Taylor Lautner that her doctor was a bit more worried than she was, recalling them saying, “‘No, this looks bad. You should go get, like, further checked on.’ And I was like, ‘Oh, my God.’ This was maybe three weeks before our Olympic trials.”

Thomas continued, “I was stressed. Yeah, I was really stressed out. And I remember telling myself like, ‘If I make it out of this OK, then I’m putting it all in the line because I’m so grateful to be healthy and alive and I’m living out my dream.’ I just remember, like, making that promise to myself and to God.”

Thankfully, the tumor was benign. Thomas said she learned that these masses can appear frequently in women who are on birth control.

“It definitely shifted my mindset a bit, right? It made me just really, truly so grateful to be able to run and do what I love,” she added.

In June 2021, Thomas won the women’s 200m race in the Tokyo Olympic Track and Field trials with a time of 21.61 seconds, making her the second-fastest woman ever after Florence Griffith Joyner. (Joyner, who died at age 38 in 1999, holds the world record in the 200m at 21.34 seconds.)

Thomas went on to win bronze in the 200m final and silver in the 4x100m relay.

Thomas also competed in the Paris Olympics in 2024, winning gold medals in the 200m race, the 4x100m relay and the 4x400m relay.

The athlete previously spoke about how her tumor scare motivated her to succeed in her Olympic journey.

“At first I wasn’t too worried about it, but the more I kept talking to doctors they kept saying cancer,” Thomas recalled on “My New Favorite Olympian” in 2021. “Fortunately, they found out it was benign just a couple of days before I left. I remember telling God that if I am healthy, I am winning trials.”

Meanwhile, she told the Boston Globe that she ran faster than she ever had before because she was so grateful to be at the Olympic trials.

“I was like, ‘I’m just happy to be here. I’m going to kick ass because I’m healthy.’ Maybe that was part of it. Part of my relief, it showed in how I raced,” Thomas said.

And though Thomas is now one of the world’s fastest women, she told Us Weekly in December 2024 that people shouldn’t expect her to go for a run with them.

“People are surprised we don’t run much,” she said at the 38th Annual Footwear Achievement Awards at Casa Cipriani in New York City. “We don’t run more than a mile, and the fact that I’ve run a mile in my life is really a lot for a sprinter. Most people haven’t even done that.”

Thomas added, “So when people ask us, ‘Do you want to go on a run?’ The answer is always, ‘No, we don’t do that.’”