EUGENE — Gabby Thomas settled in her starting blocks in Lane 8 Saturday night for the Olympic Trials 200 meter final, a race she had run in her sleep the previous night.Lining up behind her on the stagger in Lane 7 was McKenzie Long, who had swept the NCAA 100 and 200 titles and ran a leg on the victorious 4×100 relay for Ole Miss earlier this month before signing with Adidas.
“I had a dream last night that she was going to make the team with me,” Thomas said later of Long. “And I was just like I just know it, I can feel it. We’re going to do this.”It turns out that Thomas is not only the gold medal favorite for the Paris Olympics later this summer but also clairvoyant.
Thomas, the world silver and Olympic bronze medalist, won the Trials final in 21.80 seconds, less than 24 hours after she booked a world leading 21.78 in the semifinals. Long, keying off Thomas, claimed a spot on Team USA by finishing third in 21.96 with Brittany Brown in between the pair in second at 21.90. Sha’Carri Richardson, the Trials 100 winner, was fourth in 22.16.
“Just crossing that (finish) line knowing I’m an Olympian now is so surreal,” Long said.
Like so many in the sport, Thomas has been moved by Long’s story, how she struggled to come to terms with her mother’s unexpected death but ultimately turned a season in which she has emerged as a world class sprinter into a tribute to the woman who launched her on the path to Paris.
Long’s determination was first evident at North Carolina State where she came back from a hip injury that left her sidelined for 12 months, through the 2021 outdoor and 2022 indoor seasons. The injury was so serious that at one point doctors thought she might need a hip replacement.
Then one night in February, Tara Jones, Long’s mother, went to sleep and never woke up, the victim of a heart attack at 45.
“Watching her, I mean, I’m so inspired by her story,” Thomas said. “I watched her at NCAAs and there are so many amazing athletes in our sport and some of them just really stick out. I’m so touched by her season, how hard she’s working and what she’s overcome.”
But Thomas didn’t share her dream with Long before the race.
“I don’t want to jinx anything but I’m like ‘you know, she’s got this,’” Thomas said. “You know she’s just an incredible athlete. So I knew she would. So you don’t want to jinx anything or make anyone nervous before the race.
“So I was so proud of her to see that and even if she wasn’t going to make the team she has something, she has something really special. So I just know she’ll make it far in this sport.”
Long was upbeat as she stood behind her blocks before the biggest race of her life Saturday night.
“I really was smiling from ear to ear,” she said. “I wanted to go into this race very comfy and (think about) like what I’ve done this far.”
She listened to one of her mother’s play lists warming up.
“It’s called ‘Don’t be a lazy B word,” Long said laughing.
She also listened to a familiar voice in her head.
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“Just knowing I can hear her voice even when I went out there on the line (was comforting),” Long said. “And I was talking to her like, ‘listen to this and and I would come back with ‘you got this baby girl’ and I’m just like I could feel her in that moment and that’s really what got me through this race.”
Long was asked what she thought Jones would say now that she is an Olympian?
“I know my mom is smiling from cheek to cheek,” she said. “I know she is beyond proud of me and that’s all that I could have wanted.”