On Set With Gabby Thomas at The Boca Raton

SI Staff | 14 Hours Ago

Gabby Thomas Interview: The Boca Raton /

Gabby Thomas has spent years proving herself as one of the fastest women in the world. The American Olympic sprinter makes her SI Swimsuit debut in the 2025 magazine, hitting newsstands May 13. While on location for her photo shoot with Ben Horton in Boca Raton, Fla., she spoke candidly about her strength, confidence and long journey toward self-love.

TRANSCRIPT

 Hey, it's Gabby Thomas and I'm on set with Sports Illustrated Swimsuit.

My earliest memories of running track are just running in high school with my friends, and I was definitely very self-aware of my body and my body type. I teetered between not wanting to look too masculine and strong, and also wanting to maintain a feminine look, and also be thin. There were times where it would make me feel self-conscious to be like a really strong track athlete.

Through the sport I gained so much confidence and kind of focusing on those goals. It gave me a sense of purpose that gave me confidence. And so, I was less focused on what my body looked like and more so 'what could my body do for me?' And I think what I would tell girls now is to not worry about what society thinks about your body. Don't worry about what society tells you your body is for, that's for you to decide. And you can do amazing things with it, especially through sport. But even if you don't do sport, it's about celebrating yourself and doing whatever makes you feel most confident.

I think we can better support women in sport by being one, an example. Representation matters, and I think about all of the female athletes that I looked up to growing up and seeing that made me want to do it. I don't think we should shame women for their bodies or for looking strong or for wanting to go to the gym. I think we should be celebrating that a lot more.

I think what people tend to get wrong about track and field is that we are just effortlessly fast, and we go out there and we do our thing. People kind of see it as entertainment, but the truth is it takes years of practice to get one-tenth of a second faster. And so that's so many hours per day of intense focus and intense training.

A lot of times we don't respect or celebrate women as athletes as much as we should. And we see women's sports as kind of this other, but really, women's sports are just like men's sports, and it's just a part of the sports world. I think we're getting closer to that, but there's still a lot of room for improvement.

I also think that exposure to women's sports, and just keep increasing that exposure over and over and over again and forcing people to see it - forcing people to respect it because we have such an amazing product. We're seeing it more and more today, and so the closer we get [to equitable coverage], I think the better.

Being an athlete has impacted my life outside of sport because I have gained so much confidence through sports. I've learned so much about discipline and resilience, and I know how to come back from wins and losses. That helps me in every aspect of my life, and it's been such an incredible journey.

And that's a wrap on my SI Swimsuit photo shoot. Today was really hectic, but I am so happy, and I feel like a model.