Time to put things in perspective.
Gabby Douglas was a super talent who rose to Elite status at Excalibur Gymnastics in Virginia Beach, one of the top clubs in the States with many National Team members.
Gabby left the club. A move to Chows in Iowa was difficult for her at times. And disappointing for her former coaches, friends & teammates left behind.
Sad. But these things happen. Many gymnasts end up moving clubs over the course of their careers for all kinds of reasons.
The most detailed & well written version of Gabby’s story I just read in the October issue of Vanity Fair:
America’s Golden Girl by Buzz Bissinger – Photographs by Jonas Fredwall Karlsson
The move worked. Chow’s patient coaching over fewer than 24 months took her to the very top.
The story reads that Gabby was inspired to train with Chow when she worked with him at a camp at Excalibur. Fact is the family checked a number of gyms in the USA, including WOGA, before deciding on Chows.
Still … hers is a wonderful success story. One of the best rivalries of the Olympics was Gabby v Viktoria Komova.
Happy ending for USA. 
…
Unfortunately, in that Vanity Fair interview in London, her Mom, Natalie, “does not hold back” when asked about the reasons for leaving Virginia Beach. It’s one of the main themes.
Natalie recounts problems at the old gym. And episodes later told her by Gabby. All examples of reasons why her daughter wanted to move. Or quit.
Of many other interviews, Oprah was the biggest. Oprah didn’t become the highest paid entertainer in the world by airing boring interviews.
If you somehow missed the controversy, here’s a recap on Slate.
Mail Online UK – ‘They called me slave’: Gabby Douglas tells Oprah of bullying teammates’ cruel taunts that almost made her quit gymnastics
How did she get there from here?
That kind of press is not good for Gabrielle Douglas. And it’s devastating for Excalibur.
Somebody should have been advising the family not to be drawn into controversial statements.
Most online jumped to defend Gabby & her Mom. Many also blaming Excalibur. Lauren Hopkins on Couch Gymnast, for example.
A few, including Triple Twist, and myself, questioned some of the charges made against Excalibur.
The focus on racial discrimination inside a gymnastics club makes little sense to me. That gym has many African American gymnasts that, several of whom spoke in defense of the program.
There is less racism inside a gymnastics club than anywhere else in town.
Indeed, her Mom — after Oprah blew up — tried to clarify on the Wil Laveist radio show. It was more bullying than racism. An excellent interviewer.
Natalie Hawkins:
Now is not the time to tear down. Now is the time to build up.
That makes far more sense. Some kids certainly did envy her gymnastics, and might have said mean things.
What happens next?
… I hope it’s over. The worst of the damage done — folks in the general public thinking that racism is a major problem in Gymnastics. 
We’ve got problems, but endemic racism isn’t one of the worst.
We hope Gabby goes on to have a terrific Kellogg’s Tour. And a terrific career as an Olympic Champion. Gabby’s a wonderful athlete. And a great personality.
I hope she and her family can one day come to some sort of resolution with Excalibur.
That’s the 1% downside.
28 comments ↓
“That gym has many African American gymnasts that didn’t feel the same way.”
This is just jaw-droppingly ignorant. Black people aren’t all the same. They have their own experiences and all of the other black people in the gym weren’t even the same age or in the same group as Gabby. Ridiculous.
And at no point in that interview did her mum say “It was bullying, not racism.” She said it was largely bullying but there were racist comments and jokes made. If people hadn’t overreacted to the mere mention of racism, they would’ve realised that’s exactly what Gabby said too. Lying through your teeth.
Ridiculous article.
Rick, thank you very much for revising your Gabby comments. You expressed that you were very hurt by feeling that Excaliber was being dragged thru the mud. And your earlier comments reflected that.
One of the reasons I love coming to your blog is because you are so balanced and fair. With your comments about being disppointed with Gabby I felt that oh, oh, here’s another adult slamming her for expressing her views.
This article made me realize my faith in your fairness was not misplaced.
I actually this situation may help other kids being bullied to speak out. Gabby speaking out about her situation did not make me think poorly of Excaliber. It just make me feel bad for Gabby, and any kid, who is being bullied.
I also listed to Gabby’s mom and, hopefully, people will listen to what she says about Gabby was speaking about one person and about her personal experience.
Take care, I do appreciate all your hard work on this blog – giving us gym fans so much info. You are really good!!!
Indeed, she might be a good celebrity to work with this campaign:
http://gymnasticscoaching.com/new/2012/05/kyle-shewfelt-was-bullied/
Love ya Rick. Don’t stop being real.
I slightly edited the text of the post to make clear that SOME of the African American gymnasts from that program had responded to say they’d not experienced the same problems as Gabby.
That point is valid.
Gabby’s mother has ruined any chance Gabby ever had of being a huge star in this Country.
White people are sick of being called racists every time a black person doesn’t get their own way.
Gabby is just the latest example of this.
And jenny, you’re back to post your anti-Gabby thoughts. So just because Gabby has come forward with bullying and some racism, she’s automatically lying because of her race? That is ignorant and racist in itself (this coming from an die-hard conservative). Also, how did she not get her own way??? She took the world by storm, winning the 2 biggest prizes there are in gymnastics!
Thank you, Rick, for clearing up your previous post. I can rest easy reading your blog from now on.
Regardless of them “clearing it up” still I hope that the things they have said wont affect the reputation of the gym. From what you had posted weeks ago you mentioned that Gaby left Excalibur owing thousands of dollars and the gym isnt even looking for reimbursement even now that she’s made it big. The least that family could do is not comment at all.
Even with the edits, I find it mind-blowingly ignorant that anyone would make such blanket comments as “There is less racism inside a gymnastics club than anywhere else in town.” Really? How do you know? And even if it’s true, does “less” racism make it okay? If Gabby was in that gym all the time, and there were racist comments made, she may well have suffered more racism there than she did anywhere else.
I’m not saying it’s pervasive. I’m not saying I know what’s going on in that gym. But you don’t know either.
(And I don’t think this actually reflects on gymnastics at all. She clearly went to another gym and was happy and successful, so the problem is obviously not “gymnastics”. It reflects much more on the persistence of racism in our society, even in the 21st century, and perhaps a little bit on the area where the gym is located. But I don’t see how it detracts from gymnastics as a whole.)
Ok a lot of people are upset with gabby including me but why? Because she’s African American? No. because we think she’s whining about getting bullied? I don’t think so. I think we are unhappy with the way our Olympic champion has handled her success and her general attitude after this amazing thing has happened to her….
Check out these videos first one is one of gabbys post Olympic interviews the other is nastias post Olympic interview….
The way I feel is very different depending on which one I watch
Gabby
http://www.gymnastike.org/speaker/8550-Gabby-Douglas/video/652835-Gabby-Douglas-after-Olympics-I-Went-Down-in-History
Nastia
http://m.youtube.com/#/watch?v=Xfcw1oNHP_s
This whole story stinks of t.v sensationalism; when you are sitting face to face with Oprah’s producers, and they ask you about the details of your life – AND if you can elaborate on a few points…this is what you get!
Trust me when I say, they push you to these replies – Gabby, and her mom, are victims of this – it’s so clear!
I’d like to see YOU walk off set in a situation like this, and say NO nothing like that ever happened…
Cos what?!?! That check looks mighty cute in the bank….ok?
this excalibur gym (seriously, what a name… unicorn anyone?) should just have come forward and gratulate gabby. not whine to the press about tuiton in words that sounded like “my best pupil run away and now i am pissed”. that’s not professional and not how an adult should act. especially not when these adults want to be professional coaches who deal with minors.
unfortunatly they continue to act totally unprofessional by posting videos “to their defence” on youtube. they could have just apologized for any bullying the girl might have experienced while she was at their club and showcased their actual anty bullying and anti racism-policy (i hope they have one besides whining to the press and talking 16 year old olympic champions down).
Tommy, Jenny has a point. I don’t think this controversy is doing Gabby any good at all in the long run.
I also think lasgla is right too. It’s sensationalism and Gabby, her mom, and Excalibur have been drawn into it.
Gabby’s experience is her experience. Marcia Newby’s commentary on it is about as valuable as Gabby’s commentary on Marcia’s, or your’s, or mine. No one knows what Gabby felt, thought and believed … Except Gabby.
Your refusal to believe Gabby’s relation of her own experience, and continuing to pick apart what you THINK “really happened” is pretty ridiculous, and shows the pettiness, narrow-mindedness and paranoia of the gymnastics community at large. An insular community that constantly claims they want, and deserve, more “mainstream media” attention, but once they actually get it, complain about not being able to control every aspect of what is said, and what they think should never be mentioned.
There is no sport that is all sunshine and rainbows and unicorns and kittens. Gymnastics is difficult and expensive, kids are often belittled or bullied, athletes get seriously injured, and some adult coaches are flat out criminals. These are all the hard truths that our sport must acknowledge. And all will be over-emphasized in media stories because sensationalism sells.
Also ridiculous? The decision of adult professional coaches and writers to demonize 16-year-old Gabby for a couple fairly circumspect comments that were then blown out of proportion in half a dozen media stories. All because you happen to be friends with the owner’s of the gym in question, who are also spending a lot of time feeling huffy and indigent, therefore continuing to feed the flames of the story. I think jumping on that bandwagon-”I know and like them, therefore Gabby’s lying”-says a lot more about you, than it does about Gabby. And your predictions that her simple reporting of her own feelings will damage her career in any way is laughable. If anything, it will garner her even more media attention, therefore making her more marketable.
Despite your assertions, I don’t see Gabby going on an all out media blitz against Excalibur. Far from it. The media clung to, and expanded upon, the most controversial and shocking of Gabby’s comments, and continues to ask her about them in all subsequent sit downs. Gabby and/or her mother than expound for what I’d guess, based on quotes we’ve seen, is roughly two minutes of each much longer interview answering, explaining and refining their original thoughts. That’s hardly a witch hunt, or a vendetta on the Douglas’ part. And every comment I’ve seen has been measured, tempered and restrained, with the media having to work pretty hard to stir the pot and turn a little girl saying she sometimes felt uncomfortable and wondered if that MAY have been related to her race, into a firestorm.
A storm you are happily feeding, by the way, with comments like: “There is less racism inside a gymnastics club than anywhere else in town.” Because you’ve been to every town and every gymnastics club in the world? Because you know for a fact that no gymnast, anywhere, has ever been discriminated against based on their skin color? Trust me, comments like those just confirm everyone’s worst fears.
The truth is that gymnastics IS a sport where people of color, with the exception perhaps of Chinese and Japanese athletes, have been under-represented on the medal stand. The very fact that you can count on one hand the number of African-Americans on US World and Olympic teams ever, shows that, yes, Gabby’s win is noteworthy. I’d argue that has much, or more, to do with the sport, at least in the US, being confined to affluent areas and few children outside of upper-middle class families, where people of color are also under-represented, being exposed to it. Though you could definitely argue that, that under representation in the income bracket, is due to a long history of racial inequality in the United States.
Oprah has always been very much about her own struggle to succeed in a world that, when she entered it, was not receptive to women of color. She has always talked a lot about never seeing “people that look like her” doing what she wanted to do, and how important she feels leading by example is. So, naturally, she’d talk about girls that look like Gabby seeing her and wanting to follow in her footsteps, and if that path was harder for Gabby due to not having many role models that shared her race. It would be weird if Oprah did NOT pursue that line of questioning.
This all comes back to a relatively innocuous recall of Gabby being told she was the other girls’ “slave,” in a single instance, which I have no trouble believing occurred. You can argue what might have motivated it (I also would have no trouble believing that it had zero to do with race and everything to do with age and experience), but that matters far less than how Gabby perceived it.
Two individuals standing side by side in the same group, can leave the class/job environment/team with extremely different takes on what occurred, how much they enjoyed the experience and what kind of people they dealt with. One doesn’t have to be “right” and the other “wrong” for this to occur. They simply have to have different personalities and emotional responses.
Just to be clear, I didn’t put blame on Excalibur. I’m pro-Gabby not because I am entirely on her side with the way things are playing out, but because of the way adults are acting in this situation. Gabby is a 16-year-old child and adults at Excalibur are doing everything they can to drag her name through the mud. She claimed she was bullied, but rather than take this seriously, everyone (every adult, that is) at Excalibur jumped to torment her further. I get that there are issues between Gabby’s mom and Dena, but let the adults play nasty with one another. Gabby is a child and I find it absolutely appalling that adults would make her a target of their agenda. No matter who’s right and who’s wrong in this situation, Gabby shouldn’t be the one attacked, especially in the way certain adults are going after her. It’s disgusting and I would never trust my child to train with people who are so intent on ruining a teenage girl in this way. I don’t blame Excalibur for anything except handling this situation incredibly inappropriately. No bias involved, unlike your incredibly anti-Gabby posts here, which is interesting as you’re usually fair and balanced, which is exactly what I was in my post and comments.
In your own words: “Gymnastics is still a sport for rich white kids.”
http://gymnasticscoaching.com/new/2010/01/gymnastics-a-sport-for-rich-white-kids/
Sadly, that’s true. Arriving at my last Club I couldn’t see a single visible minority in the previous year’s Team photo.
Mainly, there’s a financial barrier. Gymnastics is a sport for rich families.
My point in Gabby’s case, however, is that minority kids inside the club — those few who get there — enjoy a higher standard of ethical behaviour than in any other environment in town. There’s less bullying, racism, profanity than school, playground, social settings. Etc. … Perhaps Church has an even higher standard.
I honestly think this whole thing is being blown WAY out of proportion.
If Gabby was racially vilified or bullied in any way it should most definitely be addressed and the people responsible held accountable – but in an appropriate forum such as the relevant legal system. Not through the international media. Especially when we actually have no idea what really happened, just a lot of he-said, she-said from both sides.
Neither side has handled this appropriately, in my view. I also have a sneaking suspicion this has something to do with the American tendency toward sensationalism. Yes this is a serious issue – if it happened – but latching on to every little snippet of a comment someone makes (such as Rick’s town vs gym comment) and blowing it out of proportion is making things worse.
I’m keen for this all to blow over so we can get back to the gymnastics.
That’s my overriding feeling now, too.
Both sides could have handled it better, though the Douglas family has the “power”. Nobody would be interested in anything said by Excalibur if it wasn’t for them mentioning it.
Yes — bullying, even racism, is important. But how important in Gabby’s story?
Far less than 1%.
More important is what Chow’s gym did for Gabby. What was her training program? What about that approach kept her healthy, keen and improving in consistency?
Why are we talking about Excalibur more than Chows?
Yeah that last point is what I don’t get. I would, when asked about my old gym, say only the positives to the public. They got me so far, but I knew to get to the next level I needed Chow, and then the rest of the focus should be on how Chow and Gabby worked together and planned her road to the Olympics.
And gymnastics IS an expensive sport, and whatever your ethnic demographic is it doesn’t matter – it’s the economics of an area that will determine who does gymnastics, who can join and afford team, etc.
Okay. Gabby didn’t start all of this mud-slinging; Excalibur did with that tasteless article after the American Cup. Is it a coincidence that they published an article attacking Gabby and her family right after she was becoming popular? What about last year during nationals or worlds? They were clearly after some publicity, and they got it. Gabby wasn’t about to talk about her bullying issues, BUT OPRAH WANTED TO TALK ABOUT IT. So talk they did. But notice that she didn’t blame Dena and Gustavo, who, along with the Stagebergs, are looking for their fifteen seconds of fame, by claiming their gym is perfect in every way. Why shouldn’t Gabby use her platform to say something that was on her mind for years?????? Should she and other children who are bullied every day just keep quiet? I don’t think so. Instead of addressing the issue and using it as a learning experience, Excalibur has lost all respect I had for them.
“Is it a coincidence that they published an article attacking Gabby and her family right after she was becoming popular?”
Excalibur didn’t publish anything. Their local news rag did.
“BUT OPRAH WANTED TO TALK ABOUT IT. So talk they did. ”
And this is probably the exact same thing that happened with Excalibur and the local news rag. Gabby doesn’t just knock on Oprah’s door and ask for an interview and Excalibur doesn’t get their story published in the local rag just because they ask either. When the local rag or Oprah knows there’s a story, they go out and get it. In both cases the media knows there’s a story because Gabby just did something cool on tv. So they go knocking on doors. In both cases, it seems they found people unschooled and unprepared to deal with the media and they got juicy, milkable tales out of them.
I am an elderly retired women who follows all sports and has dabbled in gymnastics a bit. This situation is nothing but a sensationalized rags to riches story. You know I once caught a fish THIS big. If you have followed this from the beginning, you notice everything has increasingly exaggerated every week.
I’m not calling Gabrielle a liar at all. She is merely a puppet and her mother and Oprah are very good ventriloquist. You could barely see thier lips move. One puppeteer for personal vengeance and the other for a personal vendetta.
A mother/daughter relationship built under these circumstances is like the house built on the sand, it may look good, but it is destine to deteriorate and collapse.
Secondly racism has no boundries: color, religion, sex,
age or country. Using an unsubstanciated race card to bring empathy to any group is both unprofessional and tacky.
My Advise:
To the mother, concentrate on the task at hand, preparing a young women for our world. Especially one with Gabrielle’s circumstances.
To Oprah, try doing something a little more admirable with your media opportunity and money. It might help your ratings.
This is kind of long and rambling, but I feel I need to post it. It’s probably going to have a lot of unpopular opinion…
I have no doubt that Gabby has experienced racism before (personally, not simply the Fox News questioning her “patriotism” for not wearing red/white/blue). However, I’m failing to see how it can be any sort of endemic problem at the gym. When other African-Americans who trained at Excalibur have said they did not experience it. True, it doesn’t mean Gabby couldn’t have, but it does narrow it down to a few people. I don’t buy the arguments that the others are lying- what do they have to gain?
I don’t doubt Gabby feels she was bullied. But again, I fail to see how this is an issue of Excalibur anymore than a fact that girls are evil to each other. Gabby was clearly Excalibur’s golden child, and that combined with the special treatment in and out of gym?! The Oprah interview definitely does imply a significant problem at the gym, but if it were more than a handful of girls, SOMEONE else would have seen, and I believe they would have come forward. Again what would they have to lose? (I don’t buy that they won’t come forward because then they are admitting to having done nothing at the time. Some might not, but again, but others would. They wouldn’t even have to give names to confirm the story)
I’m sure Gabby felt isolated. Pretty easy when you’re the only elite in a gym! I’m sure Jordyn/Aly/McKayla/Kyla feel somewhat isolated, too. And from what I can tell, she’s seems to feel pretty isolated at Chow’s too. But I keep going back to right after Aly’s floor in TF, when the team goes to look at the boards together. How Gabby walks away from everyone else. I’m sorry, but if she’s feeling isolated in 3 environments, there’s one common denominator.
The other point I keep coming back to is the concept of “who benefits”. One reason I have don’t particularly doubt the personal accounts of other Excalibur gymnasts is that I don’t see what they have to gain OR lose by it! And unfortunately, my thinking on this comes down on Excalibur’s side. Gabby’s already drug them through the mud by saying she left for better coaching, and I’m sure they know they aren’t getting that money back… Plus they have to have seen what people have said about them after the initial article about the money. All said and done, while they certainly have something to lose, they have significantly less to gain. On the other hand, Gabby has a lot to gain by this story. (And a lot to lose if it were shown that it was substantially overblown) A 2nd reason I have a real hard problem buying Gabby’s story is that it has changed far too much and far too many times, and pretty much all very recently. AFTER she went pro. AFTER the money issues were brought up. Plus I honestly think some other aspects of the story have been oversensationalized- you don’t get over seriously considering quitting something in 3 days.
Gabby has been supported by people commenting that she only brought it up after Oprah asked, but to me this is exactly one of the problems. Anyone who has to study any sort of polling knows that the results can be manipulated by the way you ask the questions.
I just can’t understand why so many people are willing to give Gabby every benefit of the doubt (when her story continually changes, and not just about why she left the gym), but yet won’t even listen to Excalibur on anything. Excalibur might not have done themselves a lot of favors, but again “who benefits?” Oprah asked to interview Gabby, but the paper asked to interview Excalibur (and if I remember right, didn’t come out until after Gabby had talked about leaving for better coaching more than once)
Unfortunately, I do think Gabby is being used to deflect attention from the mother’s financial problems. (My guess is that it was simply an oral agreement, the problem is that oral agreements aren’t worth the paper they are written on.)
Overall, I don’t think we’ve seen the full truth from anyone- because the real truth is in the middle. But so many people don’t even seem to be willing to consider that Gabby isn’t telling the whole truth.
Martha W. Dooright for president!! You said it girl
And thank you brich for pointing out the obvious. The story has changed and continues to do so. If you look at my previous posts you will see I said they did not go to Chow’s first as claimed, now they say yes we did go to other gyms. Much different story than the original claim. And much the same with everything else. Truth is indeed a little harder to find nowadays… Hmmm
I’m afraid that Gabby might be on her way to become as forgetable an Olympic champion as Paul Hamm. And for many of the same reasons…
People, this whole thing has really been blown out of porportion. Gabby says she felt bullied, questioned if it was because she was black.
Why are people getting so crazy about these words.
Kids bully. Kids use your race, face, shoes, whatever is different to say the meanest things.
Doesn’t mean the gym was racist. Doesn’t mean the coaches are racist. Doesn’t mean Virgina Beach is racist.
Adults denying everything and turning it into a trash a teen fun time makes the trashers look back.
Even if what the trashers have to say is 1% true, it still makes you look bad.
Why? Because you go on and on defending your take on it by putting down a teenager. That is shameful.
Let it go. She was bullied. Not the 1st time. Not the last. Don’t take it personally. Don’t bring in the money part.
That’s between the adults and the adults need to solve it.
Go back and listen to the interview. Read the Vanity Fair article. Listen to the interview on the radio from her mom and then try and have a tiny bit of empathy for a kid who was bullied.
Personally, I don’t believe 90% of the adults making nasty, over the top comments have even seen the interview. I think they just read a headline and then they’re off – sprewing hate and theories that have nothing to do with the facts. Which are – kid said she was bullied, questioned if it was people she was black.
Don’t see how these statements are so over the top and really can’t understand the level of passion. Scary.
I’m so sick of the “Gabby’s experience is her own” excuse. Just because Gabby felt a certain way does not mean she correctly interpreted the facts. Stalkers feel slighted when the object of their obsession doesn’t love them. Does this mean their feelings and reaction to their feelings is rooted in reality. It DOES matter what actually happened. If Gabby wants to talk about how she felt, she can talk to her mom or her best friend, but when it comes to ruining the reputation of a number of people and programs, it does actually matter what happened, regardless of what someone’s immature, oversensitive, and self-absorbed feelings may be.
Gabby is a talented gymnast. God gave her the talent. She worked hard because she had the opportunity of being born with an unusual skill. I appreciate it for only that as a gymnast. Quit hating Excalibur, innocent people who had nothing but good to say about Gabby after her gold medal. Gabby and Oprah were the negative ones who started all of this type of Internet arguing. Go on Gabby keep being the best and impressing us. Also go on all who are defending her mean without merit comments. Keep being superficial, keep hurting innocent people without merit. Continue to win your arguments. Just remember what goes around comes around in the long run. People need to come together and quit using status and money and talent as a way to teach others and make half statements or talking out of both sides of their mouths as they throw condescending and extremely hurtful comments. People with talent need to quit playing God and that includes Oprah, any president, etc and realize that God gave them those talents and they need to give thanks to God. It is time to quit saying oh look at what I have been through, and I am just saying this to help others. This is like a black and white rerun after rerun after rerun.
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