Two was nice, but three is better.

In a surprise twist, Florence’s Gabby Thomas did not close out her Olympic Games with a gold in the 4x100 meter relay.

That’s because Thomas still had one more event left in the tank on Saturday – the 4x400 relay.

Running the third leg of the relay in the final event on the track in Paris, Thomas helped the United States to another gold medal with a winning time of 3 minutes, 15.27 seconds at Stade de France.

It was the third gold medal at the Paris Olympics for Thomas, who joined an elite group of American women who have won three gold medals in the same Olympic Games in athletics (track & field). That list includes Florence Griffith-Joyner (1988), Wilma Rudolph (1960), Valerie Brisco-Hooks (1984) and the most recent to do it, Allyson Felix (2012).

Netherlands took silver (3:19.50), while Great Britain nabbed bronze (3:19.72).

The time of 3:15.27 broke a 36-year old American record, set at the 1988 Seoul Olympics. It was the second-fastest time ever in the event.

“It’s such an honor to compete with these women,” said Thomas. “I knew they were going to get the job done. It’s not an easy thing to compete on this stage with this type of pressure. We’re all grateful to be in this position.”

It was the 34th medal for the U.S. in athletics at the Paris Olympics.

“We were watching people win medals all week,” Thomas said. “I was so inspired watching my teammates do what they do. I know what it takes. I know how hard it is to win a medal in track and field. It’s a very cut-throat sport, especially at this level. I was absolutely inspired and very motivated to do it with these girls.”

Thomas didn’t run in the 4x400 qualifying round, where the U.S. won their heat with a time of 3:21.44. That relay featured Quanera Hayes, Shamier Little, Aaliyah Butler and Kaylyn Brown.

Little ran the lead-off leg in Saturday’s final, posting a time of 49.60 seconds to hand the baton off to Sydney McLaughlin-Levrone with the U.S. and Jamaica neck-and-neck. The 400-meter hurdles champion separated from the rest of the field in a hurry, running a leg of 47.80 seconds where she pulled away from the rest of the competition.

McLaughlin-Levrone handed the baton to Thomas, and she continued the domination with a 49.40-second third leg. Alexis Holmes closed it out, as the Connecticut native brought home gold with a final leg of 48.70 seconds to easily distance the rest of the field.

The former Florence resident now holds five career Olympic medals – three golds (all in Paris), one silver and one bronze.

Thomas also ran the third leg in the 4x100 relay on Friday. The American team of Melissa Jefferson, Twanisha Terry, Thomas and Sha’Carri Richardson improved their baton passes from the heats to the finals and cut their time from 41.94 seconds to 41.78 seconds in capturing gold.

She opened her Olympics with a gold in the 200 meter dash on Tuesday.

Thomas moved to Florence in 2007 when her mother, Jennifer Randall, took a professorship at UMass. At the insistence of her mother, she started running track in seventh grade at the Williston Northampton School, and immediately flashed the natural speed that earned her a gold medal on Tuesday.

After graduating from Williston in 2015, Thomas chose Harvard over an array of national track powerhouses and won 22 Ivy League titles in three years of competing for the Crimson before turning pro and moving to Austin, Texas to train with Buford-Bailey and her all-Black, all-female running group.

Thomas graduated with a degree in neurobiology and global health and health policy from Harvard in 2019 and then earned a master’s degree in public health at the University of Texas in 2022.