Gabby Thomas is not new to hate, and neither is she new to dealing with it. Time and time again she has hit back at her trolls who criticize her for the silliest of things, and time and time again she has advocated for women’s rights and equality in track and field. Like when she stood up for equal pay in ,March 2025, or also when she got back to troll who said she is not the brightest. Well, the time has come once again when Thomas answers, “What does protecting people of all genders in sports look like?” What did she say?
“I mean, I, I’m not accepting that, like I have no tolerance for that.” This was Gabby Thomas’ reply to all those people who stereotype that getting harassed is a part of being an athlete in the recent A Touch More with Sue Bird & Megan Rapinoe episode. The Olympian further said, “I did not sign up to being stalked or harassed just because I’m very good at my job and just because I wanna represent my country.” The 28-year-old is an influencer and a three-time Olympic champion, but does that mean that anybody can pull in front of her house or drop hate comments in her inbox and she just silently takes it? Of course not.
Explaining the sorry state of the gender in the sport, she said, “I think that there’s kind of this dynamic, especially online, where it is okay and almost encouraged and funny to harass women and especially women in sports.” And not only that, being a public figure, an athlete, she is often told by people that she “should be accepting this and, and, and men take it all the time and this and that.” But the 2023 world champion does not think so, she believes that women are being targeted.
She continued, “it does feel like there is a very a, there’s a large target on women athletes’ backs and it’s very intentional,” and this target became even bigger when you are women trying to make a change, doing something big and making the headlines as per the American runner, citing, “especially if you are a woman athlete, a female athlete who is kind of breaking the mold in whatever you’re doing, right?”
Gabby Thomas’ Partner is building a safe place
“No tolerance for that,” The Georgia-born has made it very clear that she is very much against the notion of giving in to hate; she is not of those who just take it. She is one of those who talks of reforming the sport, changing the society. Talking of change, she does bring to notice one good thing.
There’s no denying that there’s a need for a safer platform for these athletes, well, Gabby highlights “Alexis Ohanian is someone who’s one of my partners and who’s also working on a, a women’s track league is starting a new social media platform called Inner Circle.” Ohanian is working with Michael Johnson and Grand slam track, and for those of you who don’t know, man is also the co-founder and former executive chairman of the social media site Reddit along with Steve Huffman and Aaron Swartz.
To be more precise, the app is already in the Public domain. Not only on this app, “you can’t go and harass a female athlete just because you feel like you’re entitled to do so,” but also with this app, the athletes can earn from subscriptions. I did it properly, the app can target two of track and field’s biggest problems – money and hate, don’t you think?
The post Fed Up With Online Hate, Gabby Thomas Makes Painful Confession: “Did Not Sign Up to Be Harassed” appeared first on EssentiallySports.