Gabby Thomas didn’t know her engagement was coming. Okay, there may have been a few signs. Like that longtime boyfriend Spencer McManes took her ring shopping at Tiffany’s in New York City over Valentine’s Day. Or when he made a reservation at their favorite Austin restaurant, J. Carver’s, on a random night during her offseason. Or—and in this really should have been the smoking gun—that when she broke a nail on her left hand during track practice, he Venmoed her $50 to get it fixed. Immediately.
But nonetheless, she says she found herself in a state of shock when she wandered up to the rooftop of the Airbnb they’d rented in Travis Heights for a staycation before her track season began. Spencer was standing there, surrounded by flowers, while her best friend and a photographer looked on. “That’s when I realized, ‘Oh my gosh, this is happening,” she tells Vogue. “Normally he’s very bad with surprises—and this was the one surprise I think I’ve ever witnessed him keep.”
The Olympic sprinter and the founder of non-alcoholic seltzer brand Kaviva began dating in the fall of 2022. Their flirtation, however, started the year prior. Gabby’s mutual friends in Austin had mentioned to her they might get along—Spencer, like Gabby, was a collegiate athlete at an Ivy League university. (Although Spencer, who played football at Yale, and Gabby, who ran track at Harvard, were technically deep rivals.) One night, she looked him up on Instagram. On the top of his profile? A saved highlight where he gave pizza reviews. “I’m a huge fan of pizza myself—I was like, ‘This looks like really good quality content’,” she says. After laughing at a couple of reels, she decided to throw him a follow. “Almost immediately—he DM’d me,” Gabby says.
Photo: Meraki Narrative
