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Excalibur Gymnastics responds to Gabby Douglas's comments to Oprah 7024 views

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Uploaded by Marina M | November 30, -0001

In an interview with Oprah Winfrey on Sunday, Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas said she experienced racism and felt isolated when she trained at Exclaibur Gymnastics in Virginia Beach. The owner of Excalibur Gymnastics countered, saying the accusations are untrue.

Video: Virginian Pilot

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Comments21 comments

Gabby Fan 8 months ago

Excalibur is handling the situation with grace. They seem to be extremelly nice people.

Gabby Fan 8 months ago

Gabby needs to look at her passive aggressive self in the mirror. Sounds like she has issues that she is not even aware of and is telling a big false story on national TV about an innocent organization. It comes accross as if she is trying to get more attention from the media even with all the attention that comes with the gold medal. She says she wants to be an acrtress. Sounds like she put on quite an act with Excalibur. Excalibur deserves an apology. I was a fan but now I am not. I hope she finds some counseling and for her real issues and gives Excalibur an apology.

Gymnasty 9 months ago

Wow. . . that's not right for Gabby to say that. . . that's a turn off. Excalibur's staff and people seem very nice people. I wonder why she would say all that?

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

Gabby the Backstabber is more like it.
Oprah the has-been and the REAL racist in all of this.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

Gabby is starting to be a turn off. I agree Gabby needs to get away from her family before they milk her dry. I also think her mother owes the money to Excalibur. It was probably the honor system and "you got my word" kind of handshake because Gabby was close friends with Dena's daughter. Then Gabby's mother fled when things got tough.

WOGA probably didn't take her because the smart Russian Valeri Liukin want the money up front before training her. Chow is just too damn nice.
Anyway I'm already tired of the Fierce 5 - Gabby the mud-slinger, McKayla the show-off, Aly the Robot, Jordyn the faker, and Kyla...........well, looks like she's the only one that's staying out of the spotlight. Good for her. Keep on training Kyla!
Now, bring on the new gymnasts for Rio...

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

>>Many African American girls get over looked in gymnastics...

Just like many Whites and Asian-Americans get overlooked in other sports (like basketball). Jeremy Lin, anyone? That damn Asian guy was NorCal Player of the Year, captained his HS team to a 34-1 record, and beating the mighty nationally ranked Mater Dei HS at Championships, and still, he wasn't given a scholarship. His HS coach even said many scouts came over and kept on checking out his new black players on the team who "wasn't even good and had bad work ethics." Lin wasn't even given a partial scholarship from his hometown Stanford. The Stanford black coach, who basically killed the university basketball program, lied and saved the scholarship for a black kid, who ended up sucking. If Lin was black, with his resume/accomplishments, he would've had a full ride to any basketball university of his choosing.
When blacks discriminate, it's okay. When it's anyone else, it's racism.

what is in the dark, eventuall 9 months ago

Bravo to Gabby and her mother....Racism is very much alive in this sport. Many African American girls get over looked in gymnastics. Most gyms would rather have strong Level 10's and not coach them Elite because they do not have the International look, pointed toes, & some I've heard say, that the Black parents are too pushy.. etc... someone needs to be a voice for them. I can guarantee that the people that have commented DO NOT have an African American child in this sport. You can plainly see that the ones that have made Elite, still do not get the recognition. They either get burned out, discouraged or become college stars. Perfect examples: Olivia Courtney, Kytra Hunter...btw, Elizabeth Price should've been picked on the team, and not as an alternate.
At any rate, people will still continue to agree to disagree, especially Excalibur...it is a business at the end of the day. My only negative comment to Natalie would be...why in the world did you want her to go to Woga? I was just looking at their past Elites roster and you mean to tell me that out of ALL of those years, not one black girl made Elite?

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

Ok you guys why so much hate on a 16 year old girl. Anyone can watch television and read papers and interviews about what one person said about someone else. Look we don't know what happen so speculating doesn't do anyone any favors. Think about it how many people are bullied in the US before something is really done about it. Often times its to late and the damage is already done. What was Gabby going to do tell the coach that kids were bullying her I could only imagine what the outcome of that would have been. I am surprise at Morgan Evans and Randy Stageberg. They are both much older than Gabby so how would Gabby even remember the two of them and their failed attempts to make the Olympics back in 2008. Some people just need to get over themselves. Leave Gabby alone and move on with your lives.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

I love excalibur gymnastics and their gymnast but I do feel like they are taking this WAY out of context!

Response 9 months ago

Responding on the site Gymnewstics.com, Randy Stageburg, a former senior international elite gymnast who trained at Excalibur, said, "The accusations that are being made against the gymnasts and coaches are just sickening."

Stageburg added, "Gabby was never a victim. In fact, many would say she was one of the favorites. I am not saying that she never felt bullied, because when you are in a sport with a bunch of girls, it is bound to happen. However, anything that she may have felt was never about race, and I can assure you everyone at some point has felt bullied. I never once heard her complain about girls being mean -- funny how it is just now coming up."
Excalibur Gymnastics CEO Gustavo Maure said in a statement to E! News that Gabrielle is lying. "Is Gabrielle a credible person just because she is an Olympic champion? She is not giving any names or dates, leading us to believe that the accusation is fake," he said. "This wouldn't be the first time that the media has made up a story. Thousands of gymnasts and families have supported our good conduct and our professionalism during the last 30 years."

S 9 months ago

As people have commented already, this is a perfect media story that is being milked to get viewing figures. Unfortunately Gabby is going along with that. If she and her mother had any sense, they would never have said a word about Excalibur. Just be diplomatic. They got her most of the way to where she is now. All gyms and schools have episodes of bullying and it says nothing about Excalibur. This is a non-story that the US media is delighting in turning into one.

Alice 9 months ago

I agree with everything that Sanie San San wrote below!!

And I also blame Oprah for all of this drama!

Sanie San San 9 months ago

Wow, I have been ready all over the gymternet about Gabby and what she said on Ophra and I'm a little confused at how "excited" fans and exfans of Gabby are reacting.

I viewed the video one more time to make sure I saw/heard what everyone was looking at/hearing.
What I hear was a teenager saying she was bullied at her old gym. She also said she would ask herself if it was because she was black.
She never said the gym was racist or any of the the adults she worked with wer racist. She said other kids bullied her and gave an example of something racially insensitive that they said.
Can see why saying she was bullied, and the bullied had racial comments in it was so bad. This happens every day. Kids are bullied. And if you are different in whatever way - color, sexual orientation, size, etc. from the person bulling you they will use that against you.
Wow, again, can't understand why people are reacting like she said the gym owners were racist or condoned racism.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

As a coach in Virginia, I respect the Excalibur gym, coaches, and owners. However, I feel like children do say hurtful things to each other. Sadly, it has happened at the gym I work out. Gabby may have felt some sort of racism. But I don't feel like its at any fault of the excalibur staff. I also don't think Gabby meant to hurt anyone. I think the media likes to dramatize details. I think Oprah should have not encourage the interview to go that direction.

Come on now 9 months ago

The struggles PoC (especially WoC) face with racism are very, very real things. I am not a PoC, but it doesn't take much time to learn that racism? It's everywhere. It's subversive. It happens to all people and the girls at the gym aren't supervised all the time. It's impossible to know if they used racist epithets when dealing with Gabby because they would it would be funny, but it's LIKELY, given how most of us white people deal with racist things in the first place.

The worst offense here is not that some white people were accused of racism. The worst offense here is that people don't want to take the time to analyze why this might happen to Gabby at a reputable gym. She's not wrong--look at how few black gymnasts rise to the top in this country, or even compete in this country. It's an expensive sport and it favors a certain kind of demographic over the other just financially. Thankfully we're seeing a lot more inclusion now, and Gabby will probably inspire others to start. But when you are the lone PoC in a sport that has a long, white history, of course you won't feel you fit in and there's nothing her former coaches can do about it. It's just the way it is right now!
So don't show us all the little black girls you're coaching now. That's just the "I HAVE A BLACK BEST FRIEND" argument. We know you're not shouting the N word at every gymnast who comes through the door. But you cannot police the behavior of your students at all times and you need to accept that they probably used very stupid, very hurtful "jokes" (like calling Gabby a slave) because they didn't get it. And becoming defensive is not how anyone will learn.
Race is going to be an issue that Gabby's life includes. Because she's black. So deal with it.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

I think people need to lay off Gabby and her mom a bit. Whenever racism is mentioned people go a little nuts and only focus on that, but in the interview Gabby just basically said she didn't feel like she fit in at Excalibur. I don't know about this owing them money business, it could be true but don't believe everything you read (why would a BUSINESS continue to train you when you had racked that much dept up and before Chow Gabby wasn't exactly looking like a future Olympic AA champ).

I understand why Excalibur have countered what was said because it would be bad for business for people to think they were mean but Gabby wasn't necessarily talking about the whole gym just a few individuals. I mean Gabby could have been friendly with that coaches daughter and herself but one person among dozens doesn't mean she fit in there and its not like any of the little girls are going to admit being slightly unkind. The video was also obviously staged to show they weren't racist, it was more like an advertisement which i understand because they don't want to lose business over it.
What I'm trying to say is we don't know what true and what's not so we cant be making mean accusations. As for Gabby and her mum talking about it on TV...well they probably shouldn't have from all the trouble its caused but they are just ordinary people who have been thrown into this celebrity world over night, cut them some slack. Celebrities are always going on about how they were bullied, the reason they talk about it obviously isn't because their proud but they want others know that they are not alone and that even they were bullied, Gabby could have been doing the same. We don't know, so we can't judge.

ThisNeedsToStop 9 months ago

Hold on a minute now. I absolutely believe Gabby was a victim of editing when it came to the part about being the only black girl in the gym. From what i heard she was the only one in Iowa and not Virginia.

As for the rest, im not buying into the fact that they are hurt. Just a few months before the Olympics the coaches from Excalibur were dragging Gabby and her mothers name through the mud. They even went as low as to air out her mothers financial woes to newspapers for the world to see, and bashed Gabby for leaving the gym. Oh and they very same girls that use to train with Gabby are all over social networking sites doing exactly what she accused them of doing. Bullying her. Oh and their parents decided to join in on the bashing too.
I'm glad Gabby took the high road and didn't name any names, but the coaches, gymnasts and parents of the Excalibur gymnasts are proving Gabby right. I hope they know that all those mean things they were saying to her over the internet was copied and reported for internet bullying.

Why is any surprised???? 9 months ago

I posted on Gymnastike before the Olympics of the sleazyness of her mom and the move to try to go to WOGA first and then Chows and owed the old gym tons of money and how the media would reveal it in the end. I got jumped on by everyone at Gymnastike and why bring this stuff up and that the mainstream media would not care and such. NOW Look - while it still could have been handled discreetly - Gabby and her mom go on TV and stir all this up. Now, I notice opinions changing. People will say that now she won the AA that the goal is to tear down the star because she is black. But, the situation was set up too far in advance and no one wanted to notice it.

I totally agree that unless some major recoup is done - this may continue to loom over her. My family has had a very bad situation with a gym and coach and there is so much we could air in public about the situation but that is not what you do - you handle things and you move on.
I dont think the other fab 5 thinks too much of Gabby as a person as well. They were all coached to deal with her professionally and friendly and such, but even in the few off camera moments I have caught, it seems she is odd. The fact that her comments about Jordan who did not make AA was...oh well, everyone has to learn to deal with disappointment....just shows she is off center. I personally think Jordan placed in the right order - but still you dont say that.
Gabby could have ridden this to the brink - but she is going to crash and burn. To me, she and her mom are both PR nightmares. I bet someone is already going behind the scenes and getting the full truth on everything and it is only going to look worse for Gabby.
Former Excalibur Gymnast Randy S - and her family who are very well respected in the National Gymnastics Community has withheld comments until after this interview and they are shocked and heartbroken and totally disagree with her statements.
Mom used the poor stuggling single black mom thing long enough and now take care of my kid for me....because it is the right thing to do...people did and now instead of thanking them - and repaying them with $$ and kind words - you are being rude. Next time a talented kid in my gym needs finanical help -- I am going to think twice or triple before I give a hand out...but it is rarely appreciated.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

This may be true, who knows, but Excalibur has already shown bad character with the Virginia Pilot article on her mother prior to the Olympics, which was borderline slander. So this goes both ways. Also, they did say in the special that it was not the only reason she left. I wish Gabby's family would have been smart enough to keep private the problems with her father and the excalibur controversy. I wish Oprah would have talked about only her success and the hardship of leaving home, Gabby is only 16, just thrust into fame and simply not aware of the consequences of her remarks.

Anonymous Coward 9 months ago

This may be true. but Excalibur has already shown bad character with the Virginia Pilot article on her mother prior to the Olympics, which was slander. I wish Oprah would have talked about her success instead of seeking to discuss controversial things. Also, they did say in the special that it was not the only reason she left.

D D 9 months ago

Wow. Looks like Gabby's 15 minute of fame will be over sooner than later. To stab her ex-gym in the back like that. Not good to bite the hand that fed you up to elite. Talk about bad PR.

Gabby needs to divorce/emancipate herself from her family before she becomes another Dominique Moceanu. Apologize and thank Dena Walker, plus give the $25,000 her mother owes the gym before she bailed. This video sounds legit. Gabby is starting to get annoying and needs a PR lesson.
Looks like Gabby will be the most hated of the Fierce5. I don't even want to buy the things she will endorse.