Being able to compete in the Olympics is a feat that not many people have achieved. Being a student teacher and an Olympic athlete is another title that Leah Thomas can claim for herself.
Thomas, who is originally from Cupertino, is currently teaching in the science department at FHS. Outside of her career as a teacher, she is also a professional road cyclist, specializing in time trials and road races.
Thomas was not always the cyclist many know her as now. After she graduated from college, she moved to Arizona to teach science on the Navajo Reservation.
“At the time I needed something to do after school,” Thomas said. My friend was really into bikes, so he suggested I start biking. He convinced me to go to a bike race and kind of fell in love with it through that, but I didn’t know that cycling would be a sport I was so good at.”
Moving over to professional cycling was not something that Thomas had expected, but she decided to continue cycling seriously because she knew that she could come back to teaching when she was older.
Thomas went to Tokyo in 2021 for the Summer 2020 Olympics as an athlete. Leading up to the Olympics, there are a lot of selection requirements that need to be met, as well as training to be in the best form you can be for the Olympic races.
“You spend at least 2 years leading up to the Olympics figuring out who’s your competition, who you need to have better results than in order to be selected and how to put kind of your best resume forward for the selection committee,” Thomas said. “It’s very, very stressful. When you get selected, rather than feeling intense joy I think for most athletes, you feel an intense sense of relief.”
Due to the ongoing pandemic in 2021, the Japanese government was very strict about who was allowed to enter the country during this time, including testing athletes, journalists and anyone traveling for the Olympics for COVID-19.
“It was a difficult environment to be in, you couldn’t socialize in any way, you’re stressed about the biggest competition in your life, and there aren’t any distractions from that,” Thomas said.
Since the Olympics, Thomas had endured a hip injury during the 2022 season. She had been in a lot of pain during all of her races and needed time off the bike to recover from the injury. Thomas spent a lot of her time in Europe training and racing, which was especially hard for her, being away from home and family.
“I think cycling has always been a part of me, but it never defined me.” Thomas said.
Thomas, though still training and riding most days, decided to continue her education at Stanford and become a teacher. Throughout her athletic career, Thomas has stuck with one motto: “Beat yesterday.”
“You’re not going to get strong in a day,” Thomas said.
“You really need to pace yourself and trust the process and trust that you’ll learn and grow and get better.”
