Gabby Thomas Breaks America’s Heart With Sad News for Tokyo World Championships

If heartbreak were a post, it would definitely be this one. Gabby Thomas, the reigning 200m Olympic champion and the defending 200m World silver medalist, has shaken American track fans with an unfortunate update…

On September 2, 2025, Gabby Thomas announced that she’ll be missing the 2025 Tokyo World Championships due to an injury. This is the same Achilles pain that had been troubling Gabby since May, and was aggravated in July. Due to this, Thomas and her coach, Tonja Buford-Bailey, have now made the decision that she’ll have no option but to back out of the World Championships.

Although she would have been disheartened but Gabby Thomas realizes that this decision is the best for her timely recovery, “I understand that it will be disappointing for some track fans to hear this news, but I’ve finally come to the realization that it’s OK to be human and take care of myself. As an athlete, you always want to keep grinding, but sometimes you simply can’t outwork an injury. Sometimes it’s about patience and making the right decision for the long term. All the best to my Team USA teammates fighting for medals in Tokyo.”

Well, this certainly comes as a shock for American fans, whose hopes were pinned on Gabby Thomas as a strong contender to bring home the 200m World gold this time. However, this isn’t completely out of the blue, as warning signs about her health had been around since the USA Nationals. There, Gabby had abruptly withdrawn from the 100m semi-final despite qualification. Even in the 200m, her marquee event, she barely qualified after clocking 22.20s and making it by a razor-thin 0.001s lead.

Speaking to Citius Mag after the USA Nationals, Gabby Thomas had first revealed the intensity of her Achilles injury. “Truthfully, I haven’t been able to train too much which is kind of tough because I am dealing with an Achilles issue, and so, if you have to take a couple of weeks off before the USAs is not a good feeling,” she had said. She even maintained that this injury was something that had been going on like on and off, throughout the season, and about two weeks before the Nationals, it intensified to an extent that she could not even jog on that foot.

“But it is not something I wanted to give too much life to,” she had said, redirecting her focus back on training. But it is the same injury that has now shattered Gabby Thomas’ World Championships plans. And now, to upgrade her Worlds silver from Budapest that she’d bagged in 21.81s, she’ll have to wait for the next World Champs in 2027. But aside from heartbreak, questions now arise about how things would look for Team USA? Well, here’s a brief picture of that.

Gabby’s withdrawal will change the USA’s 200m Worlds dynamics

Gabby Thomas’ withdrawal has shaken up America’s 200m medal hopes. With her out, the spotlight now shifts to Melissa Jefferson-Wooden and Brittany Brown to chase gold for Team USA. And there’s one more name added to the World’s roster. And that’s McKenzie Long.

Thomas’ injury automatically opened up a spot for Long, since Brittany Brown had already locked her place with a wild card win at the 200m Diamond League Final in Zurich. So while the U.S. loses a major contender, their gold chances are still very much alive.

But it’s a bittersweet picture: both of America’s 200m medalists from Budapest won’t be on the start line in Tokyo. Gabby is sidelined with an injury, while Sha’Carri Richardson won’t compete after failing to qualify in the 200m at Nationals.