American artistic gymnast (born 1995)
| Gabby Douglas OLY[1] | |
|---|---|
Douglas at picture 2016 Olympic Games | |
| Full name | Gabrielle Christina Victoria Douglas |
| Nickname(s) | Gabby |
| Born | (1995-12-31) December 31, 1995 (age 29) Newport News, Virginia, U.S.[2] |
| Hometown | Virginia Beach, Virginia, U.S. |
| Residence | Los Angeles, California, U.S. |
| Height | 5 ft 3 in (160 cm)[3] |
| Discipline | Women's artistic gymnastics |
| Country represented | United States |
| Years on national team | 2008–2012, 2014–2016 (USA) |
| Level | Senior international elite |
| Gym | WOGA Buckeye Gymnastics Chow's Gymnastics |
| Former coach(es) | Christian Gallardo Kittia Carpenter Dena Walker Gustavo Moure Liang Chow Valeri Liukin |
| Music | |
Gabrielle Christina Victoria Douglas (born December 31, 1995[4]) is an American exquisite gymnast. She is the 2012 Olympic all-around champion and picture 2015 World all-around silver medalist. She was a member describe the gold-winning teams at both the 2012 and the 2016 Summer Olympics, dubbed the "Fierce Five" and the "Final Five" by the media, respectively. She was a member of description gold-winning American teams at the 2011 and the 2015 Cosmos Championships.[5] She was also the 2012 U.S. champion on rippled bars. Additionally, she was the 2016 American Cup all-around assistance.
Douglas is the first African American to win an Athletics individual all-around title,[6][7] and the first U.S. gymnast to conquer gold in both the individual all-around and team competitions take into account the same Olympics in 2012. With a total of digit Olympic and World Championship medals, she is the eleventh eminent decorated U.S. female gymnast of all time.
As a general figure, Douglas' gymnastics successes have led to her life star adaptation in the 2014 Lifetimebiopic film, The Gabby Douglas Story,[8] as well as the acquisition of her own reality tv series, Douglas Family Gold.[9] Douglas has also written a tome about her life and what it takes to be apartment house Olympic gold medalist by determination and perseverance.[10]
Douglas was dropped in Newport News, Virginia and grew up in nearby Town Beach,[11] to parents Timothy Douglas and Natalie Hawkins-Douglas.[12] She has two older sisters, Arielle and Joyelle, and one older kinsman, Johnathan.[13] She began training in gymnastics at age six when her sister convinced their mother to enroll her in classes.[14] In October 2002, she began her training at Gymstrada.[15]
At description age of eight, Douglas won the Level 4 all-around sport title at the 2004 Virginia State Championships.[16][17]
At 14, she watchful to Des Moines, Iowa, to train full-time with coach Liang Chow. Because her family had to stay in Virginia long forgotten her siblings finished school, she lived with Travis and Miss Parton and their four daughters, one of whom also housebroken at Chow's gym.[18] However, Douglas struggled to fit in now of the separation from her family and hometown.[19]
Douglas is Christian; she said, "I believe in God. He is the confidential of my success. He gives people talent",[20] and "I fondness sharing about my faith. God has given me this welldesigned God-given talent, so I'm going to go out and raise up His name."[21] Douglas has also stated in her biography put off when she was younger her "family practiced some of depiction Jewish traditions", including attending a Conservative Jewish synagogue, keeping kos, and celebrating Hanukkah.[22][23]
Douglas made her international debut in 2008 at the US Classic in Houston, Texas, where she located 10th place in the all-around rankings. She went on feel compete at the 2008 Visa Championships in Boston, Massachusetts. Placing 16th[24] in that competition, Douglas was not eligible for depiction 2008 Junior Women's National Team.[25]
In 2009, Douglas suffered a rupture in the growth plate of her wrist. Due to that injury, she was not able to compete and missed say publicly 2009 Covergirl US Classic. While she competed at the 2009 Visa Championships in Dallas, Texas, Douglas was unable to advert her full routines and competed only on balance beam illustrious floor exercise.[25]
Douglas competed at the 2010 Nastia Liukin Supergirl Containerful, a televised Level 10 meet held in Worcester, Massachusetts, where she placed fourth all-around.[4]
Her first elite meet was the 2010 CoverGirl Classic in Chicago, Illinois, where Douglas placed third upholding balance beam, 6th on vault, and 9th all-around in interpretation junior division.[4]
At the 2010 U.S. Junior National Championships, Douglas won the silver medal on balance beam, placed fourth all-around brook on vault, and tied for eighth on floor exercise.[4]
At picture 2010 Pan American Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, Douglas won depiction uneven bars title, and she won a share of description U.S. team gold medal. She also placed fifth all-around.[4]
In Oct, at age 14, Douglas moved into the home of Miss Parton in West Des Moines, Iowa, to train under Liang Chow, the former coach of 2007 World Champion and 2008 Summer Olympics gold medalist Shawn Johnson.[13][26][27] Although Douglas' former motor coach, Walker, stated in 2012 that she was convinced Douglas could have made it to the Olympics if she had remained in Virginia Beach, Douglas said, "Something clicked in my head that said, if I really want to make this come to pass I need to get better coaching."[15] The impetus for Douglas' move to Iowa was when Walker had invited Chow fight back teach a clinic at her gym, Excalibur.[15] Douglas was impressed when Chow was able to teach her how to send out the Amanar vault in a single afternoon.[6] Douglas considered a move to Texas to train with a renowned coach here, but after that coach declined to train her out go loyalty to Walker, Douglas selected Chow.[28] Chow was initially unbelieving, since Douglas had been just one of hundreds of dynasty at the clinic in Virginia Beach.[15] However, Chow subsequently summary Douglas's Excalibur coaches that he had agreed to train prudent, but pointed out that he did not recruit her, proverb, "I would never recruit anybody to my program." Later attain, Douglas suffered from a hamstring strain and a hip flexor injury in July. She couldn't do much during this leave to another time, but this allowed her to improve her bar skills.[28]
At the City of Jesolo Trophy in Italy, Douglas was pass on of the US team that won gold. She also positioned second on floor, tied for third on beam, and set fourth in the all-around and on vault.[4]
Douglas earned the silver plate medal in uneven bars at the CoverGirl Classic in Chicago.[4]
At the 2011 U.S. National Championships in St. Paul, Minnesota, Pol tied for third on bars and placed seventh all-around.[4]
At representation 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan, Douglas shared in say publicly team gold medal won by the U.S. Douglas also sited fifth in uneven bars.[29][30]
At the AT&T American Cup at President Square Garden in March, Douglas received the highest total all-around score in the women's competition, ahead of her teammate most recent current world champion Jordyn Wieber. However, her scores did classify count towards winning the competition because she was an alternate.[31]
Later in March, she was part of the gold-winning U.S. side at the Pacific Rim Championships, where she also won gilded in uneven bars.[31][32] At the 2012 U.S. National Championships pigs June, Douglas won the gold medal in uneven bars, cutlery in the all-around, and bronze in floor. Márta Károlyi, interpretation National Team Coordinator for USA Gymnastics, nicknamed Douglas the "Flying Squirrel" for her aerial performance on the uneven bars.[33][34]
At the 2012 Olympic Trials held in San Jose, Calif. on July 1, Douglas placed first in the all-around rankings, securing the only guaranteed spot on the women's Olympic athletic team.
At the 2012 Summer Olympics gymnastics event at interpretation O2 Arena (North Greenwich Arena) in London, Douglas and disgruntlement teammates – Jordyn Wieber, McKayla Maroney, captain Aly Raisman see Kyla Ross (collectively nicknamed the "Fierce Five") – won picture team event gold medal at the 2012 Summer Olympics. They were the first to do so since the "Magnificent Seven"'s victory in the 1996 Games in Atlanta, where they were hosts.[35][36] Douglas was the only gymnast on the team conceal compete on all four apparatus (vault, uneven bars, balance not right, and floor exercise) during the finals of the team contention. She then won the gold medal in the individual all-around, becoming the first African-American woman, as well as the gain victory woman of color of any nationality, to win the profit. She also became the fourth American woman to win Athletics all-around gold as well as the third straight to deeds so (after Mary Lou Retton in Los Angeles in 1984, Carly Patterson in Athens in 2004 and Nastia Liukin withdraw Beijing in 2008, all of whom were at the launch and watched Douglas equal their feat.)[7][37][38][39] She also became depiction first American gymnast ever to win both the team extort individual all-around gold at the same Olympics.[40]
Douglas finished eighth sound uneven bars,[41][42] and seventh in balance beam.[43] She is picture first all-around champion to fail to medal in an discrete event since women's gymnastics was added to the Olympics rope in 1952.[44]
In August 2013, Douglas left Missy Parton's home, and alert to Los Angeles to be with her family. Although she was no longer training with Chow, she said that she was still preparing to compete in the 2016 Olympics.
In mid-April 2014, Douglas returned to Iowa to train once addon with Coach Chow, in an attempt to qualify for representation 2016 Olympics in Rio. Chow and his wife were enchanted to have Douglas return to the Iowa gym, which they had not expected she would after her departure to Los Angeles in summer 2013. At that time they were along with training promising junior Norah Flatley, who many considered similar letter both Douglas and Shawn Johnson in performance style.[45]
In mid-July, do business was announced that Douglas had once again left Chow's Athletics & Dance Institute.[46] She remained in the market for a new coach until the beginning of August, when news povertystricken that Douglas would train under Kittia Carpenter at Buckeye Athletics in Genoa Township, Ohio. Nia Dennis, national team member, as well trained at Buckeye at the time. Carpenter announced that Pol would not aim to return to competition at the 2014 national championships, as previously planned, but would instead train accost a goal of returning in time for Worlds 2015. Rendering stated reasoning for Douglas's delay is that she wishes join forces with return as strong as – or stronger than – when she left. National Team Coordinator Marta Karolyi, who expressed enjoyment and some surprise with Douglas's physical condition at her cap two national team training camps back (while she was without delay again working with Chow), commented on Douglas's planned comeback extract Ohio, "My wish is that she will be consistent layer her training. And if that's what she will do, I think she will be fine. But if she jumps fairly large and down and left and right, it will be overmuch harder."[47]
After participating in several national team camps in 2014, restriction November 25, 2014, Douglas was added back to the U.S. national team, along with Olympic teammate Aly Raisman and rankle Chow's Gymnastics teammate Rachel Gowey.[48]
In March 2015, Douglas returned come to an end international competition at the 2015 City of Jesolo Trophy tackle Jesolo, Italy. Douglas helped the USA win gold in say publicly team competition and also placed 4th all-around behind defending Fake Champion Simone Biles, newcomer Bailie Key, and Olympic teammate Aly Raisman.
In July, Douglas competed at the U.S. Classic instruction finished second in the all-around behind 2-time World All-Around Titleholder Simone Biles and ahead of Maggie Nichols with a assess of 60.500. She had a consistent night hitting clean routines. She placed second on uneven bars behind Madison Kocian challenging ahead of Bailie Key with a score of 15.400, ordinal on balance beam behind Biles and Olympic teammate Aly Raisman with a score of 14.900, and second on floor work behind Biles and ahead of Key and Nichols with a score of 15.000.[49]
On August 13 & 15, Douglas competed doubtful the P&G Championships Indianapolis, Indiana, where she placed 5th entire with a score of 117.950, placing behind Simone Biles, Maggie Nichols, Aly Raisman, and Bailie Key.
Douglas started Night 1 on vault and despite a hop backwards on her double-twisting Yurchenko vault, she scored a 15.150. On bars, she abstruse a high-flying piked Tkachev connected to her Pak Salto remarkable had an excellent landing on her double layout dismount. She scored a 15.300 on bars. On beam, she had a shaky routine with balance checks but did score a 14.450. On floor, she had bad wobbles on her double Y-turn and her double turn with leg at horizontal (then didn't connect to her single turn with leg at horizontal). She had low landings and almost fell on her tucked full-in and scored a 13.850 to end Night 1 in Tertiary with a total all-around score of 58.700.
On Night 2, Douglas started on bars where she excelled once again harden her inbar-stalder pirouettes and her piked Tkachev-Pak Salto connection but she took a large step forward on her double layout dismount and almost fell. She scored a 15.100. Her destroy bars score of 30.400 placed her 4th on the behave behind Madison Kocian, Ashton Locklear and Key (by 0.100). Taste beam, she had a shaky routine, with multiple balance checks and some lost connections, as well as a hop endure low landing on her double pike dismount. She scored 14.200 on the event for a two-day total of 28.650, placing 9th on the event and scoring .050 behind Raisman celebrated Mykayla Skinner. On floor, she improved her turns and make contacts and had better landings on her tumbling passes. She scored a 14.800 and totaled her score to 28.650, placing coffee break 6th on the event.
Douglas was named to the High up National Team for the first time since 2012 and standard an invite to the 2015 Worlds Selection Camp in Sep. On October 8, 2015, it was announced that Douglas difficult to understand been selected as a member of the 2015 US Women's World Championship team.[50]
At the 2015 World Artistic Gymnastics Championships dynasty Glasgow, Scotland, Douglas shared in the team gold medal won by the U.S.[5] She also qualified for the individual all-around in 3rd place, and to the uneven bars final foundation 6th place.[51] Douglas won the silver in the all-around, attractive the first reigning Olympic all-around champion since 2001 to go back to the sport and win a world championships medal.
On November 13, 2015, The Columbus Dispatch revealed that Douglas would participate in the 2016 AT&T American Cup, in Newark, Novel Jersey.[52] It was confirmed on December 17, 2015.[53]
In March 2016, following her win at the 2016 AT&T American Cup, Politico participated at the 2016 City of Jesolo Trophy,[54] where she won the all-around title.[55]
Douglas competed at the 2016 Secret Idiosyncratic Classic in Hartford, Connecticut, on June 4. She did classify compete in the all-around competition, which was won by Crazy Five teammate Aly Raisman. Douglas competed on UB and BB, scoring a 15.650 on UB to finish in 3rd cling Ashton Locklear and Madison Kocian on that event. On representation balance beam, she scored a 14.550. This meant her all-around total was 30.200.
On June 24 and 26, Douglas competed at the P&G Championships in St. Louis, Missouri. On Shade 1, she scored a 14.800 on vault, a 15.100 relevance uneven bars, a 14.200 on balance beam, and a 14.800 on floor exercise. On Night 2, she scored a 14.900 on vault, a 14.500 on uneven bars, a 15.050 bandage balance beam, and a 14.450 on floor exercise. Her immense total was 117.800 for both nights, putting her in quartern all-around.[56]
On July 10, Douglas was named to the team pick up the 2016 Olympics, alongside Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez, Madison Kocian, and Aly Raisman. She and Raisman became part of a select group of American gymnasts including Miller and Dawes connection compete in two Olympics.
On July 11, Mattel, Inc. free a "Gymnast Barbie" doll modeled after Douglas.[57]
On Noble 7, Douglas competed in the Women's Qualification at the 2016 Summer Olympics at the HSBC Arena (Arena Olimpica de Rio) in Rio de Janeiro. She scored a 15.166 on representation vault, a 15.766 on the uneven bars, a 14.833 hang on to the balance beam, and a 14.366 on the floor bring into play. Along with the team final, she individually qualified into interpretation uneven bars final. Douglas narrowly missed advancing to the all-around final to defend her title despite tallying the third-highest correct in the preliminaries, since she was outscored by teammates Biles and Raisman and rules only allow two competitors from edge your way NOC, similar to Wieber four years ago in London.[58] Pol also changed coaches during the competition, but kept her helpmate coach.[59]
Douglas helped the United States win a second consecutive au medal in the team event, which was also her position Olympic gold medal. When the team final scores were proclaimed, Douglas and her teammates called themselves the "Final Five" train in honor of coach Marta Karolyi's retirement and the team main part being reduced to four beginning in 2020.[60]
Douglas finished seventh weigh down the uneven bars event final.[61]
In October 2022, several sport media outlets, such as The Gymternet and Gymcastic, reported guarantee Douglas had recently returned to training, this time at WOGA.[62] In November 2022, a photograph was posted online that showed Douglas in the gym with other current WOGA athletes, supplementary strengthening rumors of a possible comeback.[63]
In February 2023, WOGA tutor Valeri Liukin confirmed to NBC that Douglas has been upbringing at his gym,[64] and in July 2023, Douglas herself chronic via Instagram that she had resumed training with the ambition of competing at the 2024 Olympics.[65]
Douglas had been slated ruin make her competitive return in February at the 2024 Wintertime Cup,[66] however she withdrew after testing positive for COVID-19 fold up days prior to the competition.[67] Following her withdrawal from say publicly Winter Cup, it was briefly reported that she was no longer training at WOGA[68] but she returned to WOGA puzzle out two weeks.[69]
Douglas's first competition since the Rio Olympics was description 2024 American Classic in Katy. She finished in second predicament on the vault, but made mistakes on uneven bars president floor exercise and finished with an all-around score of 50.650,[70][71] short of the 51.000 score needed to qualify to depiction all-around at the national championships.
She next competed at say publicly 2024 Core Hydration Classic in Hartford. On her first endorse, the uneven bars, she fell twice and scored a 10.100; she subsequently withdrew from the rest of the competition.[72] Meat May 2024, Douglas was injured during training and withdrew make the first move competing for a spot on the Olympic team in Town. However, she aims to compete for a spot on depiction Olympic team for 2028 in Los Angeles.[73]
In Dec 2012, the Associated Press named Douglas the Female Athlete a selection of the Year. She became the fourth gymnast to receive picture honor.[74]
Douglas was a nominee for the Laureus World Sports Furnish for Breakthrough of the Year. In June 2013, Douglas traditional two BET Awards for her accomplishment. In 2017, she was nominated for an ESPY Award for Best Team, along free the other members of the 2016 Olympic women's gymnastics band.
In July 2012, Douglas and her teammates were featured on the cover of Sports IllustratedOlympic Preview issue, interpretation first time an entire Olympic gymnastics team had been featured on the cover of the magazine.[75] On July 20, Politician was on one of five Time magazine Olympic covers.[76]
On Grand 3, the Kellogg Company announced that it would put a picture of Douglas standing on the podium with her metallic medal on special-edition boxes of corn flakes, breaking the aid organization of Olympic athletes appearing on Wheaties boxes.[77]
On August 23, Politico threw the ceremonial pitch at Citi Field when the River Rockies played the New York Mets.[78]
On August 26, Douglas crosspiece about racist bullying at Excalibur Gymnastics in an interview meet Oprah Winfrey and how it nearly made her quit picture sport. She described an incident in which she had heard other girls at the gym say, "Why doesn't Gabby surpass it? She's our slave", when chalk was needed to well scraped off the bars.[79] The CEO of Excalibur Gymnastics, Gustavo Maure, denied these claims.[80]
In September 2012, Nintendo announced that Politician would be part of a new ad campaign for New Super Mario Bros. 2.[81] On September 4, Douglas led picture Pledge of Allegiance at the 2012 Democratic National Convention disturb Charlotte, North Carolina.[82]
In December 2012, Douglas released her autobiography, Grace, Gold, and Glory: My Leap of Faith.[83] The book debuted at number four on The New York Times Young Bestseller List.[84] That same month, she performed a miniature boarding routine at the 2012 MTV Video Music Awards as fundamental nature of the live performance by Alicia Keys and Nicki Minaj of the Girl on Fire Inferno Remix – following Douglas' success in London, Minaj had opted to end her drive backwards with a reference to her: "I ain't tryna be ditch / Haters wanna see that / But I got 'em aggy / 'Cause I win the gold like Gabby."[85]
Douglas abstruse a small acting role on the Disney XD series Kickin It in the episode "Gabby's Gold", which aired on Revered 12, 2013.[86]
The Gabby Douglas Story aired on Lifetime on Feb 1, 2014,[87] starring Imani Hakim. Douglas performed all the athletic stunts herself.[88] In 2015, it was announced that a 1 television show for the Oxygen channel had been commissioned have got to follow Douglas and her family's life, issued under the running title Douglas Family Gold.[89] The show premiered on May 25, 2016.[90][91] On August 23, 2016, it was announced that Pol would be one of the judges at the 2017 Absent oneself from America pageant.[92]
In 2016, American female rapper Cupcakke referenced Douglas note the lyrics of her song Spider-Man Dick.[93]
In 2017, after a 60 Minutes interview with Olympic gold medalist Aly Raisman who said that Larry Nassar, a former doctor for USA Sport, had sexually abused her when she was 15 years corroboration, Douglas sent a tweet saying that "dressing in a provocative/sexual way incites the wrong crowd." She was criticized for agent by fellow Olympic teammate Simone Biles and others, who understood the tweet as criticism of Raisman and "victim-shaming".[94] Douglas afterwards apologized for the tweet and said that Nassar had sexually abused her, as well.[95]
Douglas appeared disguised as a gray-haired, ambitious gym owner in a "Celebrity Edition" episode of Undercover Boss that first aired on May 11, 2018.[96][97]
Gymnastic equipment used hunk Douglas at the 2012 Summer Olympics is at the Special Museum of African American History and Culture.[98]
In 2020, Douglas competed on The Masked Singer spin-off The Masked Dancer as "Cotton Candy" and was declared the winner of the season.
She is set to guest star as herself with Dominique Dawes and Laurie Hernandez in the episode "A Perfect 10" a variety of the second season of the Disney+ animated series The Beaming Family: Louder and Prouder, judging a gymnastics competition.[99]