FanDuel bans bettor over heckling incident with Olympic champion Gabby Thomas
A sports bettor who heckled Olympic champion sprinter Gabby Thomas during a Grand Slam Track event in Philadelphia over the weekend has been banned by the betting site FanDuel Sportsbook.
In a statement on Wednesday, FanDuel wrote it "condemns in the strongest terms abusive behavior directed towards athletes. Threatening or harassing athletes is unacceptable and has no place in sports. This customer is no longer able to wager with FanDuel."
Last weekend, Thomas finished fourth in a 100-meter race won by Melissa Jefferson-Wooden. The bettor wrote in a post on social media that he "made Gabby lose by heckling her. And it made my parlay win." He posted a picture of his parlay that had Jefferson-Wooden winning the 100.
Thomas, the 200-meter champion at the Paris Games last summer, explained the heckling incident on X. She wrote: "This grown man followed me around the track as I took pictures and signed autographs for fans (mostly children) shouting personal insults — anybody who enables him online is gross."
Grand Slam Track, a track league launched by Hall of Fame sprinter Michael Johnson this spring, wrote in a statement it was "conducting a full investigation into the reprehensible behavior captured on video.
"We are working to identify the individual involved and will take appropriate action as necessary. We will implement additional safeguards to help prevent incidents like this in the future. Let us be clear, despicable behavior like this will not be tolerated."
ESPN first reported the bettor had been banned by FanDuel. The Grand Slam Track season wraps up with the fourth and final meet in Los Angeles on June 28-29.
The Thomas incident is the latest in a string of stalking and abuse of female athletes. Frida Karlsson, a Swedish cross-country skiing world champion, recently brought her experience with stalking into public view when she went through a trial.
A man in his 60s was given a suspended sentence and ordered to pay 40,000 kronor ($4,100) in damages after being convicted of stalking Karlsson for a year and four months, according to Swedish news agency TT. The man, according to the indictment, called Karlsson 207 times, left her voicemails and text messages and approached her, including outside her apartment.
In February, police in the United Arab Emirates detained a man who caused British tennis player Emma Raducanu distress by exhibiting " fixated behavior " toward he at a tennis tournament. Raducanu had been approached by the man at the Dubai Championships where he left her a note, took her photograph and engaged in behavior that caused her distress, according to the government of Dubai's media office.
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