A man has claimed to have heckled three-time Olympic champion sprinter Gabby Thomas into winning him $2,500 worth of parlays over the weekend.
Online user “Mr. 100k A Day” posted a video of him calling Thomas a “choke artist” before she lost the 200-meter dash to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden at Grand Slam Track Philadelphia.
Key takeaways
- Thomas entered as a heavy favorite over the field
- The man won more than $2,500 from $1,200 in parlay bets
- Thomas previously claimed she was stalked in several airports
“I made Gabby lose by heckling her,” Mr. 100k A Day wrote in an online post that included the video of him heckling Thomas. “And it made my parlay win.”
The video showed the man, three times, telling the 2024 Olympic champion she was “going down” and calling her a “choke artist.” He also said he wanted Jefferson-Wooden to win because she married a black man, while Thomas is engaged to a white man.
“This grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans shouting personal insults,” Thomas said in a Monday response to one of the user’s videos. “Anybody who enables him online is gross.”
Jefferson-Wooden ended up breaking the tape with a personal-best time of 21.99 seconds. Thomas came in second at 22.10, 0.5 seconds off of her personal best and 0.27 seconds off the time that won her the 200m gold medal at the Paris Olympics last summer.
The man shared bet slips that showed he’d risked $1,200 on two-and four-leg parlays that resulted in his $2,500 win.
The league’s response
Another video shared by the bettor showed him conversing with Thomas, who called him a heckler.
“Nice to heckle Gabby Thomas today and make her lose at @GrandSlamTrack,” the video’s caption read. “It was my pleasure.”
He also, in a separate post, thanked Jefferson-Wooden “for beating the crap out of Gabby Thomas…and getting me rich!!!!”
The incident happened at the third meet of the inaugural season of Grand Slam Track, a professional track and field league started by four-time Olympic champion, and former world record-holder and sprinter, Michael Johnson.
“Grand Slam Track is conducting a full investigation into the reprehensible behavior captured on video,” the league wrote in a statement to Front Office Sports. “We are working to identify the individual involved and will take appropriate action as necessary.
“We will implement additional safeguards to help prevent incidents like this in the future. Let us be clear, despicable behavior like this will not be tolerated.”
More trouble from fans
Thomas has been forthcoming about her past run-ins with fans. She said that a group of men several times stalked her in the airport and asked her to sign numerous photos of herself.
“What scares me is that they have my flight information, even when I don’t even know what time I’m flying out sometimes,” Thomas said in a video in January. “I don’t know if they’re hacking me, but they get really aggressive and hostile if I say no and when I’m by myself. It’s really scary.”
Thomas, 28, received a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology from Harvard University before she became a professional athlete in 2018.
Grand Slam Track event finishers are guaranteed at least $10,000 for completing an event and compete for a share of a $12.6 million prize pool across four meets.
Athletes in other sports have been the victims of abuse by gamblers. In April, North Carolina lawmakers introduced a bill that set out to prohibit prop bets on college and amateur sports, in a bid to protect the integrity of contests and student-athletes' well-being.
