Gabby Thomas calls out Grand Slam Track heckler who bragged about winning bets, with league investigating
Thomas, who won three gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, participated in two sprinting events at the Grand Slam Track meet in Philadelphia as part of the Michael Johnson-founded track league's inaugural season. Thomas finished in second in the 200-meter sprint and fourth in the 100-meter.
Advertisement
After Thomas posted a recap of the weekend on X, the heckler, who uses the username "Mr 100K a day" on X, commented on the post, bragging that his taunts toward Thomas made her lose the race and included screenshots of his successful parlay bets on FanDuel Sportsbook.
"I made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win," he wrote in the comment, with a video of him harassing Thomas as she lined up for one of the events.
Soon after that comment was posted, Thomas quickly pointed out the man's behavior.
"This grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults," Thomas said in a post on X, in response to the user's comment. "Anybody who enables him online is gross."
Advertisement
In response to a comment on her post, Thomas commented that she hadn't planned on calling the heckler out but changed her mind "since he's bragging."
Grand Slam Track told Front Office Sports that it is investigating the user.
"Grand Slam Track is conducting a full investigation into the reprehensible behavior captured on video," the league told Front Office Sports in a statement. "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."
The user's screenshots indicated that he had won more than $2,000 in total off two parlays, where he bet on Melissa Jefferson-Wooden to win the 100m. In the video, the man could be heard calling Thomas a "choke job" and referenced the fact that Thomas, who is Black, was engaged to a white man, while Jefferson-Wooden, who is also Black, had married a Black man earlier this year.
Advertisement
In addition to the comment under Thomas' post, the user posted the same video and screenshots in a separate post hours earlier, thanking Jefferson-Wooden for helping him win his bet.
"I want to thank mellissa jefferson (sic) for beating the crap out of gabby thomas at Grand Slam Track and getting me rich!!!!" he wrote.
The user tagged Thomas, Jefferson-Wooden and Grand Slam Track in the post.
In another post from Sunday, the user posted an interaction between him and Thomas where the sprinter asked "What are you doing here?" and jokingly called him a "heckler."
The user captioned the video with a similar message. "Nice to heckle gabby thomas today and make her lose," he said, once again tagging both Thomas and Grand Slam Track. "It was my pleasure."
Advertisement
Thomas noted in a comment on X that she had a line when it came to the user's behavior. "I think heckling is tolerable… but following me around the stadium is weird in my opinion," she said.
The user, in a direct message with USA Today on X, disputed Thomas' claim that he was following her around the stadium. The user also gave the outlet a fake name when asked for his name and where he lived, and said that he lives in Puerto Rico.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Eater
24 minutes ago
- Eater
Skip the Club. Hit the Coffee Shop.
The line at Clement Street's most trendy coffee shop does not feel like waiting to order a coffee. It feels more like the pseudo-sceniness of waiting in line to check your ID at Bar Part Time. Guests look over their shoulders and walk to the front of the line, trying to catch the vibe. Lilting notes of R&B ooze toward the street from the DJ deck courtesy of deep cut fiend Abby Imperial. Dropping by on a farmers market-stuffed Sunday is like watching a super well-lit club go up, with less dancing and visible intoxication. The frenetic scene is a sliver of Cafetón's vibe in Chicago. This is almost every day at Hi NRG, Luis Gonzalez and Nathan Kruse's coffee pop-up at wine bar High Treason. Caffeine is the controlled substance on hand. While the coffee is tremendous and clever, the two baristas are well past the San Francisco proving grounds of the Coffee Movement; the move here is to dress good and vibe out. The party vibes will get more to the point soon, though. On Sunday, August 3, there's not even going to be coffee for sale. Starting at 9 a.m., two primo DJs will take turns spinning vinyl while free coffee is passed out to guests. It's the pop-up's first birthday, and the two just want everyone to dance. In summation: Coffee shops are as see-and-be-seen as clubs this summer 2025. For a lot of reasons, coffee parties are on the rise, spawning their own Reddit questions for transplants eager to get into the fray: A generational shift away from getting wasted, a rise in the quality of nonalcoholic beverages runs right against that spike on the cardiogram. The wealth accumulation amongst the top one and two percent of the United States means that while the S&P just saw a record high in July 2025, per the Washington Post, a lot of people feel poorer than ever. And in many ways, they are. Hence, paying cover charges and ordering Ubers all night stings a bit more than getting the same caffeine fix you'd already get — plus there's dancing. The Mellow Joe Maloof The Mellow Joe Maloof The Mellow, a plant shop that takes turns as a barber and a cafe depending on the outpost, saw its Haight Street spot go viral in spring 2025. Hundreds of guests danced the day away amongst houseplants; almost 600 people RSVPd. Co-owner David Velasco was a barista at Duboce Park Cafe trained by Blue Bottle in a past life. He and partner Lorena Velsaco's coffee bar has become a regular spot for tourists and locals alike, though it's currently closed under renovation until mid-August. When the shop returns, there'll be seating for the first time and expanded pastry offerings. Plus, more parties, including a kick-off with DJ collective Sazon Libre. Lorena Velasco says when they were building out that shop, before there was a coffee bar, local DJs, including Wonway Posibul, played music. The Mellow hosts live music at night, too. It was a natural fit for private groups and shows, such as those put on by Black artist-centered Silk, and the Mellow pays musicians and DJs competitive rates rather than with exposure alone. 'If you left to get a breath of air, you had to get back in line to get in,' she remembers of those viral parties. 'It's very much people wanting to gather during the day, and not always around alcohol. A cocktail can be like $15 for one.' Hi NRG itself is not a proper coffee party, outside of that upcoming event. The energy, though, reflects the trend's logical endpoint: a shifting cafe culture. Minimal third-wave spaces are barely interesting to tried-and-true coffee pros themselves at this point. Gonzalez and Kruse are both musicians, the former a DJ who takes over fancy restaurants like Verjus and Mister Jiu's Moongate Lounge with city wave noise and the latter a pianist and singer. Hi-NRG is the name of an uptempo subset of techno music, the pop-up's namesake. Both of them say going out has changed since the pandemic, and Hi NRG collides with San Francisco's infamous queue and events cultures, teeing up this buzzy storm. 'It's always been about the coffee being competition level,' Gonzales says of Hi NRG, 'while having the best music possible.' Emerald Lounge Tony Abarello On Van Ness Avenue, newer player Emerald Lounge linked with Middle Eastern rooftop party Baladi for a daytime fiesta. That group also connected with El Coffee Party for a big event featuring Edward Khoury, a wildly popular Canadian and Lebanese DJ. The multiple parties take over the spacious floor inside the former movie theater, about 450 people total showing up by the end of it. Dubai chocolates and Arabic beats brought dozens of guests in the first weekend of July. The events with Baladi and Coffee Party came together from a local reaching out to Emerald Lounge owner Rebecca Fox through Instagram. She says she feels these DJ dance parties — the one at Emerald Lounge full of young professionals chatting about their hobbies and politics — are terrific. For her, it's always great to have social events at coffee houses, or sober gathering spaces. Moreover, she sees it as a harkening to coffee's origins — brewing coffee, bringing folks together, and letting the heady energy bubble over. As a cafe owner, she feels it's really on her and other owners to host these positive community events; there'll be a big Halloween-themed fiesta in October. There are coffee parties geared toward specific groups, too. Avotoasty, a cafe with two San Francisco locations and an Oakland spot, is hosting She's On Fire, an all-women dance party, at the end of July. In that same vein, Chai and Vibes puts South Asian drinks alongside cars this August, thrown by culture group Harakat in Oakland. Side A's morning time service with Coffee Movement is, basically, a DJ bar with espresso. It's caffeine's club, you're just a guest. 'Party in the morning,' Kruse says. The party at Emerald Lounge's first coffee party. Tony Abello Eater SF All your essential food and restaurant intel delivered to you Email (required) Sign Up By submitting your email, you agree to our Terms and Privacy Notice . This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Tom's Guide
24 minutes ago
- Tom's Guide
I didn't like Ari Aster's black comedy starring Pedro Pascal and Joaquin Phoenix — but not for the reasons most people are hating it
Ari Aster's "Eddington" has been making noise at film festivals for a while now, but it only came out in U.S. theaters this past weekend. So on opening night, I headed to my local theater to watch Joaquin Phoenix and Pedro Pascal face off in this dark comedy set in the early days of COVID-19. Fast forward two and a half hours and I walked out of my theater deeply disappointed. That's not a unique reaction to seeing this movie. "Eddington" is currently at 67% "fresh" according to critics on Rotten Tomatoes and 64% "hot" by audiences. People are either loving this movie, or they're hating it, and there are plenty of people on both sides of the divide. HBO Max gives you tons of hit shows and movies, from HBO Originals to A24 movies and more. Ironically, that's pretty fitting given the subject matter of Ari Aster's modern Western. The film's main purpose is to hold up a mirror to the divisiveness of America that kicked into high gear in 2020 and is still pervasive today. If it had held to that purpose, I'd probably be writing a different, more positive review. Here's a bit more about what "Eddington" is about and why I'd wait until it hits HBO Max to watch it. "Eddington" is set in a New Mexico town of the same name, during May 2020, as COVID-19 makes its way through the U.S. It stars Joaquin Phoenix as Joe Cross, the sheriff for Sevilla County, where Eddington resides, and Pedro Pascal as Ted Garcia, the mayor of the small town of a couple thousand people. At this point, the pandemic has already set everyone on edge, with some, like Joe, thinking that too many freedoms are being rescinded and others, like Ted, thinking that it's what is required for the town to survive. But that's not the only force at work here. Joe is friendly towards conspiracy theories, and both his wife (Emma Stone) and his mother-in-law (Diedre O'Connell) fully go down the rabbit hole. Meanwhile, Ted is trying to get an AI data center built to bring money to Eddington, but it's unclear how much of that money might make it his way directly. These factors all combine to convince Joe he needs to run against Ted in the upcoming mayoral race, and he deputizes his deputy sheriffs (Luke Grimes, Micheal Ward) to help him take down Ted. But those plans get thrown into chaos once the Black Lives Matter protests following the death of George Floyd in Minneapolis, Minnesota, begin in Eddington. After reading that synopsis, you could see why people might take issue with this movie. COVID-19, political polarization, conspiracy theories — these are all subjects ripe for pissing off just about anyone. But I felt Ari Aster did a masterful job holding up a mirror to the way we were — and still are. I don't think any particular group of people comes off looking good in this movie, and that's intentional. Nor does anyone come off as wholly evil and irredeemable until the third act of the movie (more on that later). You'd go into the movie expecting the liberal Ted to be the good guy, but he's clearly flawed. He's politically ambitious, has some skeletons in his closet, and is possibly in the pocket of a big tech company. He also spouts COVID-19 information more than once in an effort to highlight how serious the disease is, and despite his liberal facade, would love to see the local homeless man, Lodge (Clifton Collins Jr.), locked up and off the streets. You'd also expect right-wing Joe to be the bad guy, but it's clear that he's got some good intentions in his heart. He buys groceries for a man who wasn't allowed to shop without a mask, and when the Sheriff's office learns the news about George Floyd, his first reaction is to ask his Black sergeant, Michael, if he's doing okay after seeing something so traumatic. Then there are the townspeople, and they're just as flawed. This movie really shines as a black comedy when it focuses on the high school students in the community, who organize the protests in Eddington and don't really know the substance of the chants and ideology they're spouting. It's genuinely hilarious, and had me and the rest of the theater laughing out loud. For most people, this is why they hate "Eddington." They either don't want to revisit the traumatic time that was 2020 yet, or they're pissed that the liberals in the movie are portrayed in a bad light. But for me, this is what worked about the movie. What didn't work was the tonal shift the movie takes in the third act. I don't want to spoil what happens, in case you decide to see this movie. But in the final third of "Eddington," things take a turn from a black comedy/modern Western to a shocking horror movie. Granted, that's a type of movie Ari Aster typically excels at ("Hereditary" as a prime example), and if "Eddington" had been a horror movie from the start, then perhaps it would have worked. But the shift is so jarring when it happens, and by the time I walked out of the theater, the same people who were once laughing were talking about how much they didn't like the movie. I wouldn't go as far as the person I overheard calling it the "worst movie they've ever seen," but I was definitely checking my watch by the end to see how much longer I'd need to sit through the movie. So I can't recommend you sit in a theater for two hours and 28 minutes to watch this story play out, especially since it's probably about 28 minutes too long in the first place. If you want to watch "Eddington," wait for it to hit HBO Max in the coming months and stream it then. Malcolm has been with Tom's Guide since 2022, and has been covering the latest in streaming shows and movies since 2023. He's not one to shy away from a hot take, including that "John Wick" is one of the four greatest films ever made. Here's what he's been watching lately: Follow Tom's Guide on Google News to get our up-to-date news, how-tos, and reviews in your feeds. Make sure to click the Follow button.
USA Today
an hour ago
- USA Today
Nets unlikely to be interested in Warriors' Jonathan Kuminga
The Brooklyn Nets have done most of what they're going to do this offseason after trading for forward Michael Porter Jr. and selecting five players in the 2025 NBA Draft. Brooklyn still has to address restricted free-agent Cam Thomas along with their approximately $20 million in cap space, but they most likely won't be interested in Golden State Warriors forward Jonathan Kuminga. "I mean, look, I Brooklyn. I don't see just because I know some people maybe have mentioned Brooklyn, I don't see that ultimately, from every from my sources and whatnot," HoopsHype's Michael Scotto said of Kuminga during his appearance on "The Allen Stiles Show" as part of Sactown Sports 1140. With Kuminga still remaining unsigned as an restricted free-agent, similar to Thomas, there has been some talk about where Kuminga could go if he doesn't go back to the Warriors. This offseason has been an interesting one for restricted free-agents as there seems to be a delay in the high-profile guys getting paid like Thomas, Kuminga, and even Chicago Bulls guard Josh Giddey. Granted, due to the leverage that teams have on their restricted free-agents with the ability to match contracts offered from other teams, but this summer seems different from others. Brooklyn and Thomas reportedly haven't been eager to get a contract signed, but there doesn't seem to be any indication that the Nets and the former LSU Tiger are looking to part ways. After Thomas' response to The Ringer's Zach Lowe regarding what critics think about Thomas' game and his value in the NBA, it seems that Brooklyn may have to pay more if they are going to keep Thomas. As this relates to Kuminga, the Nets may have a chance of being able to sign or trade for him if his price to sign is cheap enough or if the Warriors price to trade for him is enough of a value. Either way, it doesn't seem like that Brooklyn entertain trading for Kuminga given that they have their own situation with Thomas to figure out, but Kuminga could be a player for the Nets to keep on their radar given the free-agency landscape right now.
