… I was a bit surprised when a former NCAA championship gymnast raised $17 million in funding late last year, not only didn’t do cartwheels, he kept it a secret–until now.
“It didn’t make sense for us to be distracted with hype, especially when it wasn’t important to our partners at the time,” explains Dan Gill, Co-founder, Huddler, which is a company that makes software that modernizes online forums …
Huddler powers 31 sites and field 24 million unique visitors monthly. It has been increasing revenue quarter over quarter and is on track for profitability in 2013. …
In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas said she experienced racism and felt isolated when she trained in Virginia Beach. The owner of Excalibur Gymnastics countered, saying the accusations are untrue.
Instead they expanded on why Gabby left Excalibur. Good for ratings. Exactly the kind of talk Oprah wants to hear.
Women’s artistic gymnasts are as “protected” as any children in any city. The gym is an environment where there’s no profanity, and less racism than anywhere else in town. Gabby is far more vulnerable at school. Or walking down the street. In Virgina Beach or Des Moines.
This headline is not at all the main storyline of Gabby’s career:
THE fun is over for some Sydney schoolchildren who dare to do cartwheels and handstands in the playground.
Drummoyne Public School has banned handstands, cartwheels and somersaults during lunch and recess unless “under the supervision of a trained gymnastics teacher and with correct equipment.” …
The move has confounded parents such as Rebecca Chown, who has collected more than 250 signatures on a petition calling for the rule to be overturned. …
… For children and adolescents, the 2007-08 National Health Survey results indicate that 24.9% of children aged 5 – 17 years are overweight or obese. …
Gabby Douglas is the super talented, super enthusiastic, somewhat unpredictable wunderkind. Nobody can understand how she flies and jumps so high.
Gabrielle Douglas is the new Olympic Champion on Oprah. Starting to believe her own story.
Wall Street Journal:
… The 16-year-old African-American gymnast appeared on the show “Oprah’s Next Chapter” and said that when she was around 14 years old and in training with other gymnasts “I felt I was being bullied and isolated from the group… Just, they treated me, not how they would treat their other teammates.” …
So far as I’ve heard, those accusations are wrong and/or exaggerated. As are some of the other statements she and her mother have made repeatedly to media.
Randy Stageburg is a former Senior International Elite and National Team member:
This is absolutely ridiculous. I trained at Excalibur gymnastics for 8 years and I personally trained with Gabby for 2 of those years. The accusations that are being made against the gymnasts and coaches are just sickening. I watched Dena and Gustavo put so much of their time and effort into gabby and the other athletes, no matter their race. Gabby was never a victim …
I also trained with Morgan Evans, Marcia Newby, Britney Ranzy and Sheriese Clark all of which were on the national team and are African American. I can assure you they all have nothing but great things to say about their experience at Excalibur. …
Kristina Coccia (aka Sharky) is a former Senior International Elite who trained at Parkettes:
I’ve had the pleasure of knowing the Excalibur coaches for many years- never once would I question their coaching or love for their athletes. …
I know numerous gymnasts who experienced nothing but fantastic memories from Excalibur. Pay back the money you owe, stop playing the victim and respect the coaches who got you to the Elite level. Because the Excalibur family is one that I personally remember during my career. This entire story makes me sick …
On Monday, August 27th at 4pm (EST), Tumbl Trak will be visited by the Olympic Gold Medalist, member of the Fierce Five, Jordyn Wieber, during a LIVE Twitter session. Jordyn will be chatting for 30min. Email questions in advance to social (a) tumbltrak.com.
Despite better results that I would have predicted, there’s been some backlash in the Russian media after London. The profile of Olympic sport is high in Putinland leading up to the 2014 Winter Games in Sochi.
Queen Elizabeth tries to sort information from disinformation:
… The key focus of this coverage, rather than on gymnasts’ performance, is on national coaching provision: will contracts be renewed, and were all members of the national teams provided with equal coaching support. …
Russian Head Coach and his often controversial wife, Valentina.
… The vocal and very public nature of dissent and conflict within the Russian teams is uncharacteristic of Andrei Rodionenko’s management style and of the successes he has created in past years. Why now should the somewhat strident voice of Valentina become dominant? At 70 years old, an age when most people are considering retirement, Andrei faces another four years in a highly demanding and stressful job …
… Is there anyone ready to replace Andrei Rodionenko at the top of the sport? …
This may be the most important quote from the article:
… generally in Russia, coaches are coaches and do not have the entrepreneurial skills to develop and maintain the multiple streams of income necessary to run a financially healthy gymnastics business. …
Can nations with small elitist programs (Russia, China, Romania) compete with the USA long term?
If you’re putting a wager on the women’s Artistic medals for Rio, bet USA. The American team is deepest. The American system the most stable.
… Sport doesn’t care where you’re from, if you’re a man or a woman, tall, thin, big or short. Sport doesn’t care how you got here, how much money you make, what you believe in or not. It doesn’t care if you have two legs, one leg or wheels. Sport only cares that you’re here to take part and give your all to win.
