By: Taren Vaughan
There’s always a proud moment when athletes shine and all their hard work pays off, especially when it comes to the Olympic Games. These athletes train for hours on end day after day with hopes of claiming a victory. Gymnast Gabby Douglas knows just what that feeling is like as the 16-year-old gymnast captured a gold medal in gymnastics as a member of Team USA in the 2012 Olympics.
With only a few slip ups here and there in her performances, the Virginia native looked nothing like an Olympic amateur and helped her team seal the deal after Russia trailed them only slightly which kept everyone watching on edge.
Nervous jitters she may have had, but faith and confidence Gabby Douglas held on tight to. Being the very spiritual person she is, Gabby tweeted a Bible verse from the Old Testament (Joshua 1:9) on Saturday prior to competition. She tweeted the exact same verse again Tuesday, the same day that her and her teammates brought home the goal for The United States.
Gabby Douglas on the team’s amazing win:
“I don’t think we wanted to settle for less,”
“We wanted to go out there and be aggressive, and be strong and courageous, and not be afraid. So we went out there and did that. And it feels awesome to be champions.”
And champions they now are.
Aly Raisman, Jordyn Wieber, Kyla Ross and McKayla Maroney are the other four very talented gymnasts that made up the Fab 5, the “Fierce Five” as McKayla Maroney wants them to be now called.
Team USA winning the gold medal in gymnastics hasn’t been done since the 1996 team, nicknamed “The Magnificient 7”, did it in Atlanta, one that gymnast great Dominique Dawes was apart of. So awesome to see them photoed together above.
Gabby Douglas will be participating in more Olympic events including the uneven bars and balance beam competitions.
Snagging your first gold medal at the Olympics…Very dope Gabby.
So happy for her!!! She is a really talented young woman. I’m glad to see another black female doing the damn thing in gymnastics.
I’m proud of her and was happy to see her accomplish her dream. But my happiness faded quickly when I saw that most black women were too busy talking about her hair to even realize why what she accomplished was so important to black women! I was disgusted. And that is how we do each other all the damn time. I’m sick of it.
Gasp! You read my mind! That’s all they were talking about. Her damn hair. Some black women still have that whole “nappy hair” complex. Some of them were even bragging her they always keep their hair “done” and they can’t see how Gabby’s momma could let her walk out the house looking like that. With all these black women going natural you would think we have arrived to the point that we understand hair is not that big of a deal. Looks like we still have a long way to go.