Olympian Gabby Thomas Is Doing 'Everything I Can' to Get a Gold Medal in Paris — Including Sleeping a Lot

Track star Gabby Thomas is hoping for a World Championships win this year and a gold medal at the 2024 Olympic Games. That means she's going to need to sleep a lot

Gabby Thomas had an impressive Olympic debut at the 2020 Toyko Summer Games, earning the bronze medal in the 200m and a team silver medal for the 4x100m relay — and she's just getting started.

The 26-year-old Harvard graduate (who's currently pursuing her masters in epidemiology at the University of Texas) ran the then-second-fastest 200m sprint in history at the 2020 U.S. Olympics trials. She now is doing "everything I can" to secure a gold medal at the 2024 Paris Olympics — but up first is the 2023 World Athletics Championships this August, in which Thomas also hopes to come out on top.

"World Championships is going to be a great way to feel out the world stage leading up to the Olympics," Thomas tells PEOPLE. "A lot of people will be watching and figuring out what names to be focusing on, so it's a great opportunity to get out there and compete hard."

She adds: "I just want to go prove to myself and the world what I'm capable of."

Ahead of the 2022 World Championships, Thomas suffered a hamstring tear and did not get a chance to compete at the event. While the Olympian recalls the injury as "heartbreaking," she says it left her feeling even more motivated to nab the world championship title this time around.

"Having an injury is really tough to deal with, but that's part of the job description," she explains. "The best thing you can do is take care of yourself and learn from that, and that's exactly what I'm doing."

In fact, prioritizing her health is her main focus this year and particularly, her sleep health. While discussing her campaign with Seize the Night & Day, Thomas shared that getting good sleep is paramount to her success on the track.

Focusing on good sleep hygiene is "how I prioritize my rest and make sure I'm mentally and physically in a good place to train and compete at a really high, elite level," she tells PEOPLE.

Thomas also hopes her partnership will get other people to think about making sleep a key part of their healthcare routine.

"A lot of people don't realize how sleep and prioritizing your overall health can really impact your training and how you feel on the day-to-day because those are kind of small gains that you are making," she says, "but they add up over time and make you a better athlete or just a better version of yourself."

Thomas' passion for health extends beyond the track as well, and it has guided both her studies and her advocacy for public health. The New Balance-sponsored athlete is currently working toward her master's in epidemiology at the University of Texas, after receiving her bachelor's degree in neurobiology and global health from Harvard.

She tells PEOPLE that she always knew she wanted to study neurobiology, but she became more passionate about public health and promoting "access to health care for everyone" after studying the field more closely during her undergraduate years.

"It's something I care so deeply about and it's also something that just aligns with my track career, just making sure that I am doing what I can do for my own health and being informed," she adds.

For Thomas, that passion also branches into mental health — a topic that has gained more attention in the Olympic space in recent years. Thomas opened up about the toll competing at the elite level can take on athletes' mental states, noting that "people are constantly talking to you or about you" causing a lot of "external stress."

When Thomas feels the pressure, she'll go for a walk with her pug Rico or put on an episode of her favorite show, Friends, meditates daily and implements breaks from social media: "Anything that keeps me calm, focused and overall in good health."

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