Olympic 200m champion Gabby Thomas wanted to walk away from athletics on several occasions, she said on Tuesday following her dominant victory in Paris.

The 27-year-old American, who captured bronze at the 2020 Tokyo Games and silver at last year’s world championships, secured her first global title after beating 100m champion Julien Alfred and compatriot Brittany Brown to win gold.

“Running track in college, there were many times where I thought I would quit,” Thomas said. “When I went pro, the growing pains of joining a professional training group are real, there are a lot of egos. I didn’t think I was going to be cut out for it. I told my agents ‘I’m out and I’m done’.”

Thomas said she initially took up running grudgingly at the encouragement of her mother Jennifer Randall. Thomas ran for Harvard while completing a degree in neurobiology before earning a Master’s in public health from the University of Texas.

She adopted a pug named Rico, saying the dog helped her through trying times when running was not going well. “In every race that I ran, there were a lot of eyeballs on me,” she said. “There were a lot of expectations. And that was definitely a lot more pressure. And I had to adapt. That’s what all of the best athletes do.”

Thomas was still not entirely prepared for the ear-splitting screams of a jam-packed Stade de France. “I envisioned this race over and over from start to finish,” she said. “I was not prepared for how I was going to feel when I crossed the line as an Olympic champion.”

Reuters