USA’s Olympic gold medalist Gabby Thomas has announced her engagement to boyfriend Spencer McManes after they began dating three years ago.
The track star had been in the relationship as she won three gold medals at the 2024 Paris Olympics, but she’s now broken the news of her engagement on social media in an interview with Vogue.
Thomas revealed that the proposal was one she didn’t see coming, yet she will hold onto it for the days ahead of her.
‘Normally he’s very bad with surprises—and this was the one surprise I think I’ve ever witnessed him keep.’
Gabby’s fiancée McManes made the romantic gesture on the rooftop of the Airbnb they had rented for a small staycation in Travis Heights prior to the Thomas’ track season.
Thomas told Vogue that the proposal came with decorations made up of flowers and had recruited her best friend and a photographer.
Gabby Thomas and Spencer McManes, the founder of the non-alcoholic seltzer brand Kaviva, started dating in the final months of 2022 although they began talking in 2021.
A mutual friend had suggested a potential flirtation between the two, and despite their Harvard-Yale rivalry, Thomas decided to grace McManes with an Instagram follow.
“I got the notification that I had a new follower, and I was like, ‘That’s crazy!’” McManes recalled. “I immediately DM’d her and asked, ‘What did I do to earn a follow?’”
After months of conversations online, Spencer McManes finally made the bold call and asked Gabby Thomas on a date. Now, their engagement is here.
Over the past three years, the couple, who live together in Austin, Texas, and share a pug, have kept their relationship largely private.
Nonetheless, the world was offered a rare glimpse into their romance last October when she shared a TikTok video from a luxury getaway to the Maldives.
Last year at the Olympics in France, McManes traveled to Paris to watch his now-fiancée claim Olympic gold in the 200m, 4x100m relay, and 4x400m relay.
Like Thomas, Spencer is Ivy League-educated, graduating from Yale in 2017 with a bachelor’s degree in political science and government.
The two also share a student-athlete background, as McManes played football for the Yale Bulldogs.
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Thomas graduated from Harvard in 2019 with a bachelor’s degree in neurobiology and global health before earning her master’s in public health from the University of Texas Health Science Center at Houston.
