Off Topic Gabby is NOT a liar

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First of all, I don't even know if I'm allowed to post this on here, so if not, feel free to delete it. But:

Gym denies Gabrielle Douglas's racism claims - Yahoo! TV

I personally find this sickening. I watched the interview with Oprah, and she was in no way blaming the gym, or the coaches. She said that she felt excluded by the other girls, and she thought racism was probably a part of that. Who are they to call her a liar for saying this? I find it appalling that they think they can say that because she has provided no names or dates, she is lying. She would have gotten slammed even more if she had revealed names, and how is she supposed to remember exact dates? Also, how do they think they know what happened to her? They can't keep track of everything that is said between the gymnasts. How does Randy know she was never a victim? It's not like she followed her around the gym and was with her every waking moment...

And even if the comments made to her were not intended to be mean or bullying, she perceived it that way, and they can't call her a liar for speaking her feelings. If she felt bullied, hurt, or scared, that is what matters, not what they think she should have felt.

As for the part about her never complaining about bullying, I don't think they realize how hard it is for kids to speak up about these things. Look what's happened after she's just spoken out about it now. It sometimes seems easier to just stay silent, so I think she is very brave for speaking out about her experiences.

Finally, I think the gym has handled this completely wrong and childishly. Even if I did think she was lying, their reaction would be enough to steer me away from them. They should have apologized that she felt this way, wished her the best, and moved on. They say she is giving the gym a bad reputation, when, in fact, it is them who are doing it to themselves. I think the only reason they are surrounding it with so much drama is that they are upset and jealous that she moved away and they didn't get all the fame. Many, many gymnasts switch gyms all the time. It's just that this one happened to become an Olympic champion.
 
The backlash isn't about the comments it is how she handled it. No one is calling her a liar. Did you see the article in the Virginia Pilot, Excalibur, commenting on the comments? Even they didn't call her a liar, but when she made a comment about being isolated, the GOs, had proof disputing that. These are things that are 2+ years old. Yes it is hard to go and complain about something, but she needed to do so, if it wes THAT bad. You need to stand up for yourself and learning how to do so, is part of growing up. By her not doing so, she let others "suffer" how she did for 2+ years. BLAH.... You don't bring them up 2 years later on public TV. It was very bad taste and honestly, I lost some respect to her. BTW, Excalibur has a very good reputation in Virginia, they do turn out some of the best gymnasts in the state, constantly. How do I know? My DD competes against them.
 
I like Gabby, but this was the wrong way to go about this. If she was being bullied, she should have told the gym about it and had it dealt with. Trashing them on Oprah is approximately the worst possible way to handle it. She just went on national TV and took a huge swing at their business and livelihoods, as well as the parents and families that go there.

Give people a chance before you just throw them to the wolves of the national media and public perception.
 
I agree with this. She is a young girl and she handled it like a young girl. It's unfortunate that some adult in her life didn't help her on what to say and how to handle it - like you said, 2 years later. I also say shame on Oprah for even going there on National TV, but of course I'm not surprised. The whole tone rubbed me wrong.
I like Gabby, but this was the wrong way to go about this. If she was being bullied, she should have told the gym about it and had it dealt with. Trashing them on Oprah is approximately the worst possible way to handle it. She just went on national TV and took a huge swing at their business and livelihoods, as well as the parents and families that go there.

Give people a chance before you just throw them to the wolves of the national media and public perception.
 
I agree 100% - shame on Oprah. Gabby said she didn't want to focus on the negative, Oprah said, "Well, I do!" Gah! I felt that Gabby was very uncomfortable when she was responding to the questions about her hair and the bullying at her old gym. She was pretty much squirming and Oprah put her on the spot. Bad taste all the way around. And very uncool for the gym to have to deal with allegations of this sort, now. If there was an issue that she wanted to resolve, that should have been addressed in a private conversation with the gym owners, with the ultimate goal being her personal healing, if that is in fact what happened (not saying it did or didn't). There is absolutely NO good reason to hash it out on TV like that. On one hand, Oprah is mad because people weren't focusing on Gabby's athletic "prowess", yet she did the exact same thing - what a hypocrite. It's all about ratings and creating a controversy. The media is a soul eating pack of harpys.

I agree with this. She is a young girl and she handled it like a young girl. It's unfortunate that some adult in her life didn't help her on what to say and how to handle it - like you said, 2 years later. I also say shame on Oprah for even going there on National TV, but of course I'm not surprised. The whole tone rubbed me wrong.
 
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Agree with every word you said. I actually was uncomfortable watching it with my 12 year old daughter, who tends to be very naive in some things. I felt I needed to explain why it was wrong for that to be said the way it was, yet I didn't want to bash Gabby, who she loves. I bashed Oprah instead lol
I agree 100% - shame on Oprah. Gabby said she didn't want to focus on the negative, Oprah said, "Well, I do!" Gah! I felt that Gabby was very uncomfortable when she was responding to the questions about her hair and the bullying at her old gym. She was pretty much squirming and Oprah put her on the spot. Bad taste all the way around. And very uncool for the gym to have to deal with allegations of this sort, now. If there was an issue that she wanted to resolve, that should have been addressed in a private conversation with the gym owners, with the ultimate goal being her personal healing, if that is in fact what happened (not saying it did or didn't). There is absolutely NO good reason to hash it out on TV like that. On one hand, Oprah is mad because people weren't focusing on Gabby's athletic "prowess", yet she did the exact same thing - what a hypocrite. It's all about ratings and creating a controversy. The media is a soul eating pack of harpys.
 
No one else can really speak to what her personal experience was. I don't think she would lie or make up a comment like that, but at the same time I do not feel this gym has any institutionalized racism. That doesn't mean an individual with a vendetta against her (especially with her talent level) couldn't make such comments about her and make her life very difficult. I do not think this would have been ignored had it been brought to the attention of the owners, though. I'm not sure in her comments she even meant to "blame" Excalibur for anything, or just speak about some difficult periods in her gymnastics career. It's the media that seems to have twisted it into blame for Excalibur.

I did think the video response was a little uncomfortable. Excalibur Gymnastics counters Olympian's comments - YouTube However a reporter put it together so I can't fault them for that. But at the same time, as far as gyms go, that is a diverse gym (located in a diverse city). The owners have made an effort in this respect. It would have been better in my opinion to just release a statement saying they were not aware of these alleged incidents and do not condone racism, and then do a video segment with Morgan's comments and videos of all gymnasts training without so many targeted clips.
 
Everyone has the right to their own opinions. - Mine? - Gabby gave false information during the Oprah interview. Period. The links below can attest to that. There are other african american gymnasts that trained and competed with her along with a list of other Excalibur gymnasts that made International Elite and the National Team over the years. How is all this media helping our daughters? The only way it's helped mine is to teach her lessons she shouldn’t have to worry about at her age. Pretty tall order for a child still in elementary school...
DD has now learned the word “charismatic” and I explained that so many people think that everything Oprah says MUST be true and people like that can be very helpful or very hurtful. “If she says the world is flat, she could make some people really believe it. If she said “There are many animals in shelters that need our help…please send in $10 this month for food…. people will do it.” So she sees both the bad and good sides of “charisma”.
DD knows it doesn’t ever matter what the color of our skin or hair is – all our blood is red, bones are white, liver is brown. Gymnasts all train equally as hard to reach their goals. Our body is just a carton that is carrying around our soul. People just have different types of cartons.
Lets get on with our lives and focus on our athletes. The best thing we can do is teach them to treat others as they wish to be treated.
http://www.wavy.com/dpp/news/local_news/douglas-old-gym-reacts-to-bullying
http://hamptonroads.com/2012/08/douglas-tells-oprah-she-felt-bullied-va-beach-gym
http://wtkr.com/2012/08/27/former-virginia-beach-coach-teammates-shocked-gabby-douglas-said-she-was-bullied/
 
The more I think about the the angrier I get at Oprah. I felt she leaded her a bit, when Gabby was explaining, she would say "so you felt bullied? Ugh, and her comment that she wants to focus on the negative. I hope Gabby's people lead her a little better going forward because if this continues it will not go over well with her fans. Negativity is ugly, and speaking up is one thing, but there are ways to do it. Going on national tv and stating for the very first time that you were bullied and and a victim of racism at your former gym is probably not a good idea. I don't know how this all came about, if her mother knew she was going to say this beforehand.
 
When I first saw this story earlier today, before I saw the interview or read any of the details, my initial thought was that I doubted there was any major racism at the gym. I go there, and Morgan is the coach for my adult class. Knowing Morgan had been an elite at Excalibur my gut reaction was that if there was any widespread negativity at all, then Excalibur would not have their former high level gymnasts return to coach there. This would be particularly true of african american gymnasts if there was any widespread racism... there are plenty of gyms in the area to coach at.
I do think Gustavo's response was unprofessional. I think he should have taken a little more time to calm down before giving an official response, and think it would be beneficial for the gym to enlist the help of someone to filter what they say before they say it. Gustavo did flat out say she fabricated the story, because she didn't gives names or dates. All that said to me was she wasn't calling out anyone specific. For all we know there was simply one team mate that was really horrible to her, but she doesn't want to make it known who it was. As far as the "slave" comment, there are plenty of other reasons why someone would say that other than race... hazing isn't unheard of, and if this happened when she was new to the group or the youngest, that's the kind of thing that may be said to a person who's in that position. Not at ALL saying it is right, but it happens, and I think most of us know how 13-15 yr old girls especially can be.
While I don't think Gustavo's response was quite appropriate, I do know that it has not been approached with the same attitude by others at the gym. There definitely was NOT anyone at the gym while I was there tonight who thought she was a liar (no one who said they thought so, at least.) Just a lot of people who were trying to not discredit her experience and certainly not speaking badly of her, but being supportive of the gym.

Ultimately I think Gabrielle probably had some negative experiences, absolutely. Even at the most supportive of gyms, there's bound to be some bad apples. I also think that she is still working on putting her thoughts out there articulately when she is put on the spot. Some of us just have a hard time getting what we are trying to say to come out right. Her mom did make sure to say that there were probably other explanations for some of what Gabrielle had experienced, that painted the gym in a more positive manner.

In the end Gabrielle wasn't lying, and at the same time Excalibur is not a negative environment.

~Katy
 
I like Gabby too, and in my opinion, those experiences probably did hurt her feeling and make her feel bullied. But people say things all the time, and do not realize how they come across. Teenage girls are notorious for this. If anyone should be ashamed it's Oprah. She should know better...it looked like Gabby was put on the spot, answered the questions as truthfully as she could, but I can definitely understand the gyms reaction. Most gym owners put their heart and soul into their business, and really come to care for the girls they teach. It'd probably feel like a slap in the face, especially if this is the first time you're hearing any of it.
 
We as a society should not say we don't believe someone is being bullied (or that it is their fault or that it is acceptable) in just the same way we should not say we don't believe any other victim (rape, assault, child molesters, etc) because it gives power to the "bad" people to doubt the truthfulness of the victims. Victims will not speak up if they are scared to be believed. While I can't stand Oprah, I refuse to doubt Gabby because maybe, just maybe, there is some other pre-teen (and she could be white, black, green or purple) out their being bullied and maybe Gabby speaking up will give her strength to stand up for herself. To me racism and bullying are 2 separate issues. And it has nothing to do with liking Gabby or not. Girls can be mean and coaches can definitely be oblivious to it. Speaking up about bullying is ALWAYS the right thing to do!
 
Reading this from a non-USA perspective, I agree that it was Oprah leading her that was wrong.

Yes, she should have spoken up, but privately to the gym.

I get the feeling that it's not so much racism, but the meanness and competitiveness many girls can experience, particularly if she's very talented. How many posts have we read on her about older girls feeling threatened being in the same training groups as young girls more talented than them.

I do think also, that if that's the case she's probably going to have to learn to brush it off and get over it. She's a public figure now, and people are going to openly say they don't like her/her hair/she wasn't good this meet, like they do with all celebrities.
 
Oprah was surely asking leading questions, but that's part of her job as a talk show host, she wants to draw the story out of people, otherwise you just get the same canned responses that everyone has heard a billion times.

That said, I don't think Gabby had any reason to totally pull stuff out of thin air and probably her comments were misconstrued a bit -- I think she was describing the actions of a a few individuals, not institutionalized racism on the part of Excalibur as a gym. Of course our memories are not perfect. Comments about her being the only black gymnast and such -- perhaps she meant in her training group? It certainly sounds like she felt isolated and picked on and it is not really for us, or even her ex-coaches at Excalibur, to say that her experiences are invalid. We weren't there with her. Even her coaches certainly couldn't have overheard every single comment that was made.

I think Excalibur is handling this whole situation extremely poorly. I agree with the gymdog who said they should have just made a statement wishing her well, saying they were unaware of any racist comments, they're sorry she had a bad experience, and that had they known they would have certainly put a stop to it. That's all they really needed to say. Going on and on about it gets a little bit into "doth protest too much" territory, and on top of it, it is unprofessional for an organization that deals with young people to basically come out and say that a teenage girl's account of bullying is untrue. As a parent, that doesn't inspire confidence in me.
 
I think Excalibur is handling this whole situation extremely poorly. I agree with the gymdog who said they should have just made a statement wishing her well, saying they were unaware of any racist comments, they're sorry she had a bad experience, and that had they known they would have certainly put a stop to it. That's all they really needed to say. Going on and on about it gets a little bit into "doth protest too much" territory, and on top of it, it is unprofessional for an organization that deals with young people to basically come out and say that a teenage girl's account of bullying is untrue. As a parent, that doesn't inspire confidence in me.

this! totally agree.
 
Oprah was surely asking leading questions, but that's part of her job as a talk show host, she wants to draw the story out of people, otherwise you just get the same canned responses that everyone has heard a billion times.

But Gabby is a 16 year old kid. Just because she won Gold and we now know who she is doesn't change the fact that she is a kid. Oprah's been around and heard this type of discussion before. To lead a 16 year old into this type of discussion is pathetic, but she got her ratings boost!

I think ultimately this will hurt Gabby's earning potential and Oprah will profit from it. I never have liked Oprah!!
 
What should be a happy time to celebrate for both Gabrielle & Excalibur, has become such a sad & ugly situation all the way around. I think both Gabrielle & Excalibur need some have some professional PR help & I think Oprah should fund it for both of them. She took an already touchy situation & lit a fire under it. Now both sides are left to deal with a media mess that they are obviously inexperienced in dealing with.

I thought Oprah liked to "guide people to higher levels of thinking". Well, this her chance to fix the mess she helped fuel. She should have Gabrielle back on & invite the Excalibur coaches, along with some professional negotiators, psychologist, etc. to discuss ways that bullying can been properly dealt with at the time it happens. That is the only way to turn this negative situation into any kind of a positive one.

Otherwise, people on both sides are going to be left with a bad taste in their mouthes & who will suffer from that? Gabrielle may not get as many endorsements, Excalibur's business may suffer & many raw hurt feelings are left unrepaired all the way around...all senselessly.

Maybe a show like that might actually help someone who is feeling bullied. Maybe we could all actully learn something useful from a show done in that kind of "helpful" based format. JMHO.
 

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