Gabby Thomas Wins Gold—and America’s Heart
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America, the search is over. Our next great sprinter superwoman has arrived.
Her name is Gabby Thomas, Olympic gold medalist in the women’s 200 meters. And her reign began just after the starting gun went off on Tuesday night inside a packed Stade de France.
Thomas burst out of the blocks, and the collective breath of American track fandom sighed. The curse of the bad starts that have plagued American sprinters in Paris was over. As her long, wavy ponytail popped up to vertical, it was clear even with the staggered start that she was toe-to-toe with the woman on her immediate right: Julien Alfred, reigning fastest woman in the world after winning the Olympic 100 meters just two days earlier.
That’s all Thomas needed.
Crossing the line 21.83 seconds later, a full body width ahead of the rest of the field, Thomas raised her arms on her head in a mixture of elation and shock.
“I got to hear the crowd roar and I knew that all of my friends and family and my community was behind me. So that feeling was indescribable,” she said. “It was the happiest moment of my life.”
Alfred snagged silver in 22.08, and Brittany Brown came up big for Team USA in 22.20 to make it a 1-3 punch for the second running event in a row and to put the exclamation point on a stunning night for the American track and field.
It’s the first time the U.S. has claimed victory in this event since Allyson Felix won gold 12 years ago at the 2012 Games less than three hundred miles away in London. Felix retired from professional sport in 2022, leaving a void on the track in her wake but channeling her drive into trailblazing initiatives for women athletes, including the first Olympic village nursery ever in Paris.
And sure enough, tonight could not feel more like a ceremonial passing of the torch from the 11-time Olympic medalist to the dazzling 27-year-old she inspired.
A Diamond Under Pressure
From the outside, Thomas’s meteoric rise looks clandestine. She took bronze in the 200 meters at the pandemic-delayed 2020 Tokyo Olympics three years ago. She worked her way up to silver at the world championships in Budapest last summer. There was only one place to go in Paris.
And she came to Paris with a world leading time of 21.78, which she ran en route to winning the U.S. Olympic Trials in June. But there was a lot of pressure to surmount along the way.
Few American track stars have been hyped more in glossy NBC primetime packages, ads, and news articles than the 2019 Harvard graduate who now uses her master’s degree in epidemiology from the University of Texas to volunteer at a health clinic for underserved populations there in Austin. This ascendence came to the forefront in April, when Alexis Ohanian, a Reddit co-founder and the husband of tennis phenom Serena Williams, anointed Thomas as the face of his new women’s only-track meet, Athlos, slotted for September in New York City.
She’s the golden girl, not only for our national track and field team, but you could say (and I will) for the country at large.
And yet, as she’s earned more success, so too, the weight of expectations have mounted.
“It’s a lot more fun to run when people aren’t expecting things of you. It’s a win-win. If you run well, then great. If you don’t run well, ‘Well, hey you had the experience,’” she said after the race.
After the empty stadium of Tokyo, the races, like the expectations, got bigger and bigger. A packed house at the world championships took the 2020 Olympics to another level.
“I had never experienced that before, but it prepared me for this race,” Thomas said. “And I remember thinking, ‘I don’t know how people can deal with the amount of pressure that we’re about to put on ourselves as athletes here at the Paris Olympics.’ There are so many people in the stands. This is a new age of social media where everyone’s watching us and have immediate commentary.”
In case that wasn’t enough, America has been holding an audition for the Next Great Woman Sprinter since Felix retired two years ago. Sha’Carri Richardon was an obvious frontrunner. After her silver in the 100 meters this week, her fate remains in the balance. But even before that fateful 100, I think you could argue that Thomas was the favorite-in-waiting. She has the story. She has the poise. And most importantly, she showed the promise. She just had to prove it on the world’s biggest stage.
How Gabby Thomas won the Olympic 200 Meters
As Thomas walked out onto the track on Tuesday evening, her eyes glimmered with a steady, ferocious determination rarely seen on her effervescent face. She knew she could win, even before reigning world champion and second-fastest woman in this event ever Shericka Jackson withdrew from the meet. And she seemed to want that win more than anyone else out there.
The pressure was enormous, but she remained calm—she always does before races, eschewing pump-up music for the zen of her own thoughts. After placing her white and highlighter green New Balance spikes in the blocks just so and lining up her fingers on the purple mondo, she gazed down the length of the track and found her external focus.
While Thomas may not have the raw speed of the likes of 100-meter specialists like Alfred, she more than makes up for it in power and strength when the distance is doubled. After that textbook start, Thomas harnessed her unparalleled power to pull through the turn in first. With each pump of her perfectly squared arms, she pulled further and further away from the field, her face a composed grimace of grit.
In front of a sold-out Stade de France, Thomas powered her long legs down the straight away, her cadence seemingly slowing as her speed inexplicably soared before giving way to one of the most iconic celebratory reactions of all time.
“I did not realize that I had won this race until I crossed the line,” Thomas said. “I knew that I was going to have to execute until the finish. I have an Olympic champion in the lane right next to me. I had Brittany [Brown], who got second in our trials, right next to me. So the race wasn’t over until it was over.”
It’s the type of process-over-results mindset that creates champions. But for the 70,000 people sitting in the stadium, millions more screaming at their TVs from home, and even Felix watching from across town in the NBC newsroom, that A-plus start had sealed the deal.
“It was over the moment she came off that curve,” Felix told Mike Tirico on NBC just moments later.
Putting on a Clinic
Thomas has become such a fixture of American track and field royalty so quickly, it’s easy to forget that just a few years ago, she was just an Ivy League runner there for an education and considering quitting the sport entirely. Those doubts crept in again after she turned pro her junior year in 2018.
“The growing pains of joining a professional training group, there are a lot of egos. There are just a lot of moving parts, a lot of things going on. I didn’t think that I was going to be cut out for it,” Thomas said.
Plus, her mom, Jennifer Randall, who raised Thomas and her twin brother Andrew as a single mom pinching pennies as a teacher and earning a PhD in education, would prefer that Thomas prioritize her own education anyway.
Even this year when asked whether her mom would be more proud if she earned a PhD or an Olympic gold medal, Thomas said without hesitation: “The PhD. Not to say that she doesn’t support my track career. She loves what I’m doing on the track. But my mom has always instilled that the most important thing was education.”
While Thomas has defied the parental pressure, so far, that influence permeates her perspective. She moved to Austin, Texas to earn her masters and train under Tonja Buford-Bailey, herself an Olympic bronze medalist in the 400-meter hurdles. She runs the hypertension program at a volunteer healthcare clinic to give her life balance and to give back. If she doesn’t reach all of her goals on the track, it’s okay. She has other dreams she’s working towards, too.
Now that Thomas has accomplished her dream on the track, she doesn’t know what’s next. But she does know she will continue to keep her head down. There are more races to run, and more peoples’ lives to touch.
“I want young girls to look at us as strong female athletes and feel like they can do it too,” she said. “I want them to feel like they’re encouraged to go into professional sports. I want them to feel encouraged to pursue their dreams, no matter how big or small. And I hope when they look at me and see what I do, they’re inspired to work hard. I hope they’re inspired to be kind to people and to give back to their communities when they can.”
It’s another dream Felix and Thomas have in common.
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Bangladesh Garment Factories Reopen After Sheikh Hasina’s Flight
August 07, 2024BruceDayneGarment factories in Bangladesh, forecast to account for 90 percent of the country’s exports, reopened on Wednesday hoping to swiftly resume full operations after production was disrupted by violent protests that ousted Prime Minister Sheikh Hasina this week.
Hasina resigned and fled the country on Monday after around 300 people were killed and thousands injured in a crackdown on student-led protests since July.
Garment and textile factories which supply major western brands such as H&M, Zara and Carrefour had been forced to shut under curfews imposed during the unrest.
“We lost a total of four days, it is too early to make an estimate of the loss. There was little physical damage to factories,” Miran Ali, vice president of the Bangladesh Garment Manufacturers and Exporters Association, told Reuters.
“I am hopeful that in the next few days, we will see complete normalisation,” he said. “I’m confident our buyers will stand by our side.”
He added that H&M, which sources garments from about 1,000 factories in Bangladesh, had already said it would not seek discounts due to the delays. The world’s second largest fashion retailer had said it was concerned about developments in Bangladesh.
At a factory belonging to apparel maker Urmi Garments in Dhaka, the mainly female employees were back operating sewing machines.
“We went out of work, sitting idle at home. We were scared. We are poor people depending on daily wages and overtime. If we sit back home, how can we run our families?” 38-year old Razia Begum, an employee at the factory, told Reuters.
Factory manager Emdadul Haq said the factory had lost 228,000 pieces of production worth $107,000. In all, Urmi, which counts H&M, Japan’s Uniqlo and Britain’s Marks and Spencer among its clients, had lost about $2.2 million across three units, he said.
The International Monetary Fund expects the ready-made garments industry will account for 90 percent of Bangladesh’s $55 billion annual exports in the financial year 2024.
Bangladesh was the third-largest exporter of clothing in the world last year, after China and the European Union, according to the World Trade Organisation. Nearly half of its exports in the July 2023-May 2024 period were to the EU, worth $21.65 billion.
By Sam Jahan and Tanvi Mehta; Editing by Peter Graff
Learn more:
What the Crisis in Bangladesh Means for Fashion’s Supply Chain
The country’s prime minister resigned and fled the country on Monday after weeks of protests roiled the world’s second-largest garment exporter.
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Friendship Bracelets May Be Everywhere, But It's '90s Kids Who Have The Best Memories Of Them
August 07, 2024BruceDayneA perpetual favorite at sleepaway camps, today, friendship bracelets are not just for the kids, they’re for grown-ups, too. And some come with a very adult price tag.
In a Vogue roundup of luxe friendship bracelets, one you can personalize with initials by designer Jemma Wynne fetches a cool $3,360.
Then, of course there are the homemade, candy-colored beaded versions that Taylor Swift fans have shared with each other during the Era tours, in an ode to one of her lyrics. (Before they got together, Swift’s own boyfriend, Kansas City Chiefs tight end Travis Kelce, cheekily made one for her with his number on it.)
Swifties weren’t the first to latch onto friendship bracelets. Ravers trade beaded ones, too, called “Kandi,” and hippies in the 1960s and ’70s were into macrame bracelets. As the Guardian notes, some sources say friendship bracelets can be traced back to the Indigenous communities of Central and South America.
For many, the draw of the friendship bracelet is rooted in ’90s nostalgia. Growing up, a friendship bracelet, usually made of cheap, colorful knitted thread but sometimes beaded ― was the ultimate playground status symbol.
Having a friend fasten one to your wrist ― after they went to all the trouble to make one ― was tangible proof that your friendships were solid and your social calendar was booked for the summer.
“If you were known for complex designs, you could gain popularity by being ‘the one who could show you how to do the chevron.’”
Growing up in Eastern Connecticut, DYI expert and YouTuber Becky Stern’s big sister first taught her how to make the knotted style with embroidery floss, before the duo graduated to making hemp bracelets. Like many ’90s kids, Stern’s memories of friendship bracelets are entwined with sleepaway camp.
“I remember racing to finish a bracelet before the week of camp ended so you could send your new camp BFF home with it,” the 39-year-old told HuffPost. “Returning to school in the fall with full wrists was a sign of a summer well-spent.”
Generally speaking, being crafty doesn’t grant you social capital at school the way being on the basketball or cheerleading team does; showing finesse when it came to the art of making friendship bracelets was the rare exception.
“If you were known for complex designs, you could gain popularity by being ‘the one who could show you how to do the chevron’ or whatever it happened to be,” Stern said. “I wasn’t generally popular at school, but sometimes felt that way at summer camp.”
Tradition holds that you’re not supposed to take off friendship bracelets until they naturally fall off your wrist or your friendship is severed ― whichever comes first ― so eventually, the bracelets tend to get a little ratty.
“I remember how gross it felt to have wet wrists after swimming or showering while wearing all those tie-on cotton bracelets,” Stern told HuffPost. “As an adult with sensory issues, I could never repeat the trend!”
Virginia Dickens, a 32-year-old comedy writer in New York City, specifically associates friendship bracelets with summer family vacations to Lake Erie, Ohio. Her family has been spending the week of July 4th there for generations, and the kids would always have a beach project to keep them busy. Gluing sea glass to picture frames, for instance, or making friendship bracelets.
Like many friendship bracelet aficionados, Dickens is quick to reference the “Klutz: Friendship Bracelets” book when asked how she learned to make them. (This was, after all, in a simpler time before YouTube tutorials.)
“You can make them anywhere ― just tape the string to a book or clipboard and knot away,” she said. “I remember making them for my parents. Sometimes they would wear them or use them as a bookmark for their beach read.”
Though friendship bracelets are favored by girls, Dickens remembers them being pretty general neutral.
“That Klutz book mostly featured girls, but ― at least at the lake in the ’90s and early ’00s ― boys and girls would make these bracelets and exchange them,” she said. “We would use ‘boy colors’ for the boy bracelets.”
In the last few years, Dickens has undergone a few surgeries. During her recovery time, she needed something to still her mind, so she reacquainted herself with the Klutz book and made friendship bracelets for her friends. (Her other recommendation for cute patterns? Friendship-bracelets.net.)
“I can make the patterns in the book pretty quickly now and finish one in a few hours ― tying the knots is like muscle memory,” she said. “I’ve made bracelets with ducks, ice cream, watermelon, and ones with super intricate patterns. It’s really fun and relaxing, and it keeps me off my phone.”
Maria Makarova, a 26-year-old crafter who goes by Masha Knots online, never grew out of making friendship bracelets, either. She’s part of an online bracelet making community that has a fun tradition where they send each other half finished bracelets and finish each other’s work.
Makarova, who lives in London, wrote a tutorial book on the craft and runs a YouTube channel where she posts weekly bracelet tutorials, challenges and discussion videos.
“Interestingly, I find that my audience online ranges from young children all the way to people in their 60s and 70s,” Makarova told HuffPost. “I always find comments from people of older generations especially heartwarming. They love sharing stories of making bracelets in their youth, and I love hearing them.”
Sarah Stearns, a 35-year professional crafter known for her crochet DIYs, said that friendship bracelets were a huge part of her ’90s midwestern childhood.
“My friends and I started a bracelet-making club in elementary school, which was really fun ― we’d meet during recess and after school before Girl Scouts,” she said.
Today, Stearns is mom to a daughter who absolutely loves friendship bracelets.
“She was so proud when she finished her first bracelet, and now makes them for her friends, older brother, and even grandma,” Stearns said. “She went to summer camp this year and came back really excited about making them. It’s cool to see her get interested in something I loved at her age.”
While sleepaway camp and Taylor Swift concerts still may be the most common place to find a friendship bracelet, in November 2023, the first friendship bracelet made it to space.
That fall ― at the height of the Eras Tour craze ― astronaut and self-professed Swiftie Kellie Gerardi brought her friendship bracelets along on the Galactic 05 research mission.
“I was only the 90th woman in history to fly to space,” Gerardi told People magazine in July. “It became very important to me not to tone down my personality or femininity in an attempt to conform to society’s expectations of what a space professional should look like — instead, I wanted to expand that image to include me,” she added.
“At the end of the day, conducting science in space with a wrist full of friendship bracelets was the perfect way for me to embrace those complexities,” said Gerardi, who is also a mom to 6-year-old daughter Delta V.
Like a good ’90s kid, Gerardi traded her high-flying friendship bracelets once she was back on solid ground.
“It was also the perfect way for me to do something special for all my girlfriends who have always supported my dreams and who traveled out to my launch to cheer me on,” she said. “I was able to trade a space-flown ‘Astronaut Era’ bracelet with each of them!”
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VF Corp Posts Smaller Q1 Revenue Drop Than Expected, on Better China Demand
August 07, 2024BruceDayneVF Corp reported a smaller-than-expected drop in first-quarter revenue on Tuesday, helped by improvement in its China business as well as leaner inventory levels, sending its shares up about 7 percent in extended trading.
Along with several global apparel retailers such as H&M and Zara, VF Corp has been facing some disruptions due to political unrest in Bangladesh. About 15 percent of its production comes out of the country, a company executive said in an earnings call.
Sales in the company’s Greater China business were up 4% on a constant currency basis, as the company benefited from a better product assortment and newer styles.
From the time he took the helm in June 2023, VF CEO Bracken Darrell has made big changes to the leadership team and sold streetwear brand Supreme, as he works on a plan to turn the business around.
The company reported a 21 percent fall in sales for its Vans brands, while The North Face brand saw a 2 percent decline in the quarter ended June 29.
As noted by Guggenheim analysts, the addition of executives such as Sun Choe as global brand president for Vans and Caroline Brown as global brand president of The North Face is seen to have boosted VF Corp’s strategic and business transformation.
Its revenue fell 8.6 percent, to $1.91 billion from a year ago, compared with analysts’ estimate of an 11.5 percent drop to $1.85 billion, according to LSEG data.
VF Corp posted an adjusted loss of 33 cents per share, compared with analysts’ estimated loss of 37 cents per share.
The company’s quarterly gross margins were down 80 basis points to 52 percent, after declining 52.8 percent a year ago.
Its inventories in the first quarter were down 24 percent, compared with the previous year.
By Anuja Bharat Mistry; Editor: Pooja Desai
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VF Corp Misses Quarterly Revenue Estimates, Posts Loss
Shares of the North Face owner, which have declined 34.5 percent so far this year, were down nearly 8 percent in extended trading.
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Shiseido Sales Drop 4% As US Business Slumps
August 07, 2024BruceDayneShiseido’s net sales decreased 4 percent to $1.7 billion in the second quarter, the Japanese beauty conglomerate announced Wednesday.
Core operating profit for the first half declined 31 percent year-over-year. Shares in the company fell 3 percent following the report.
Bright spots in the first half included the buzzy skincare line Drunk Elephant, whose sales grew 11 percent. Its fragrance division, which manufactures scents for the likes of Narciso Rodriguez and Zadig & Voltaire, grew 15 percent.
But the overall second-quarter net sales in the US declined 20 percent in a sharp reversal of trends following 9 percent growth in the previous quarter. The company chalked the US softness up to lower shipments and slower production.
In China, the company said price competition and a wider pullback in spending was still weighing on the key market, with sales declining 9 percent during the second quarter.
China has been even more of a headache for Shiseido than other international groups. While most have seen softness in the market, Shiseido has also had to contend with a local boycott as Chinese consumers spurned Japanese-owned brands due to concerns over the release of treated radioactive water in Fukushima earlier this year.
The company is making changes in a bid to regain ground. Last week, it announced a new chief executive, Kentaro Fujiwara, who is set to present a new strategy for the group in November. Shiseido said it would be exploring further acquisitions to fuel growth after inking a new fragrance license for Max Mara in July.
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