Olympian Gabby Thomas responded to a “gross” spectator who shouted weird comments at her as she prepared for a track meet.
On Monday, the 3-time Olympic gold medalist took to social media to call out the person who heckled her as she stretched before running in the Women’s 100-meter dash at the Grand Slam Track meet at Franklin Field in Philadelphia on Sunday.
The 28-year-old ultimately finished in fourth place for the 100-meter and second place in the 200-meter sprint. She took to social media to reflect on the races. “Not the Slam results I hoped for, but when you race as often as I do, you can’t win em all,” she wrote on X (better known as Twitter), accompanied by photos of her at the race, a picture she took with fans, and a special gift she received from them.
“On the bright side, this is the best I have ever ran at this at this point in the season,” she continued. “I’m so so grateful to everyone who continues to support me on my journey, win or lose- rain or shine. I love this sport sm and I’ll see you guys on the track very soon!!!”
While many fans congratulated her…
…one X user made it known that he was not rooting for her. In fact, he was there in person, at the track meet, to ensure she knew just how much he didn’t want her to win.
“I made Gabby lose by heckling her,” the X user tweeted. “And it made my parlay win.” The tweet was accompanied by the bets he made against her, and a video of him yelling various comments about her, ranging from telling Gabby “not to choke” to weird comments about her interracial relationship.
“Come on, Gabby. Don’t choke like you did yesterday, Gabby. You’re a choke artist. You’re going down, Gabby.” He continued to heckle her as someone next to him shouted, “Don’t listen to him!”
“Come on, Melissa [Jefferson-Wooden],” he continued. “Melissa got married this year — [she] got a Black husband. Gabby got a white guy. I want Melissa to win.” This was in reference to Gabby recently getting engaged to her entrepreneur fiancé, Spencer McManes, who happens to be white.
After sharing the post, some users called for the user to be banned from future track meets, as well as betting platforms. When Gabby found out the heckler was mocking her online and boasting about winning a bet at her expense, she decided to address him.
“This grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults- anybody who enables him online is gross.”
Hecklers have become a common occurrence at sporting events, but sometimes people take things too far. I’m glad Gabby addressed it the way she did.