LONDON - One of the first questions Gabby Douglas faced, with the gold medal still around her neck and the final chords of the Star Spangled Banner seemingly still hanging in the air, was the most predictable one: "What are your thoughts on becoming the first black woman to win the individual gold medal in gymnastics?"
Douglas' initial response was telling: "Oh gosh, I'd completely forgotten about that." And then she went to give a perfectly fine answer that was perfectly atypical of a 16-year-old being asked to speak extemporaneously on the world stage. But there was a moment there, however brief, when, just maybe, the color of her skin didn't matter. If she had forgotten it was an important moment, maybe it wasn't so important?
Of course, she could have been caught up in the whole proceedings. After the individual all-arounds were over, Douglas admitted she broke the cardinal rule of people in the lead by looking at the scoreboard. And she did so after every round. So she knew going into the floor routine that she had a .03-point lead, and that any slip would cost her the gold. But she didn't slip. Her music blared and she bounced around the mat like her legs were made of springs, and when she stuck the landing at the end of the routine, her big smile lit up the arena. Her closest competitors still had to go, but she knew she had won the gold.
And so came her moment, when the national anthem was played and she stood on the middle spot on the podium between two Russians who were supposed to defeat her handily. It was a moment when she momentarily forgot the historic significance, when instead of being the first woman of color to win, she simply became the third straight American woman to win all-around gold. Race didn't matter.
Or ... maybe it did. Because realistically, Gabby Douglas should have become more famous than she did. She had the great back story - she moved from Virginia to Iowa by herself at age 14 to train for this very moment - she had the great personality and the world-class smile. And sure, she got plenty of special notice at first from the late night talk shows and from Oprah and so on. But things didn't seem quite right.
Immediately after winning her gold, after all the compliments and people gushing about her life story, Douglas started to inexplicably face questions about her hair. And the problem was ... well, I'm not sure, really. That her hair wasn't picture perfect? It's hard to say. What was certain is that we were criticizing how a 16-year-old's hair looked while she was winning a gold medal.
Then Douglas completely faltered in the individual event finals, failing to medal in any of them after being so dominant in the all-around competition. That gave her the appearance of a flash in the pan, someone who had one great moment and would never begin to duplicate it. People started wondering if she was a fluke, that she won the gold medal that was destined to go to her teammate Jordyn Wieber (who, incidentally, got more publicity for crying after not making the all-around final than Douglas got for making it). Then McKayla Maroney was unimpressed with her silver in the vault and became exponentially more famous than Douglas.
That wasn't it, either. Douglas appeared on the cover of Corn Flakes, not Wheaties. That was weird. She spoke to Oprah about the difficulties of being a black gymnast, about the racial abuse she received in training in Iowa, and was instantly called a liar. She was the all-around gymnastics champion, but she already seemed to be getting pushed aside. It's not like she was getting ignored, per se, but it seemed more and more that when she made an appearance on a talk show, it was with her four other teammates.
And what, exactly, had she done? When she won, she was happy yet humble, was friendly and God-fearing, and showed the appropriate balance between awe at what she had done and the confidence that she knew all along what was going to happen. In short, she did everything right and nothing wrong.
It could mean nothing, of course. There have been times where the best athlete on a team is not the most famous, or second-most famous. It could be a coincidence.
Or it might not be.
No matter what, though, Gabby Douglas made history. Whether that kind of history is still important in 2012 is up for debate, but what she accomplished will never be taken away from her. Because she was more than just the first black gymnastics champion. On August 2, 2012, Gabby Douglas was the best gymnast in the world.
Showing posts with label gymnastics. Show all posts
Showing posts with label gymnastics. Show all posts
Friday, August 2, 2013
Wednesday, August 15, 2012
August 15, 2008: The Russian American
BEIJING - All the stories were about how disappointing it was that the U.S. women didn't win the all-around gold medal. Even though the home-standing Chinese had put on a breathtaking display and were virtually unbeatable on that night, the main story lines seemed to focus on the fact that the U.S. women had choked.
As the gymnasts turned to the individual all-around on August 15, the focus was on whether Shawn Johnson would win the individual all-around gold. After qualifying first overall, the diminutive, bubbly Johnson became the star of the storylines, people hoping for a feel-good story to distract from the "disappointing" silver.
After the first event of the All-Around - the vault - Johnson was indeed in first place, leading to American hopes of another Olympic champion. But she fell to third after the uneven bars, getting passed by China's Yang Yilin and her Russian-born American teammate Nastia Liukin.
Liukin was coached by her father Valeri, a former gold medal-winning gymnast for the Soviet Union, and though she had been competing with Johnson every step of the way in the leadup to the games, she was still viewed as the underdog.
Johnson put in a great performance in the balance beam, but Liukin was in full control at this point, topping her teammate by a 10th of a point. When Yang put in a mediocre performance, it was Liukin, not Johnson, who was in the lead. Johnson and Liukin then tied for the best score in the floor exercise, and when Yang stumbled again, the Americans had more than made up for their team silver with the gold and the silver in the individual all-around. It was only the fourth time two women from the same country had gone 1-2 in the all-around, and the first time Americans had done it. Liukin also joined Mary Lou Retton and Carly Patterson as American all-around champions, completing her feat one Olympics after Patterson.
After the individual all-around, the athletes turned to the individual event finals, where Liukin two more silvers and a bronze. With her five medals, she was the most decorated female gymnast at Beijing.
As the gymnasts turned to the individual all-around on August 15, the focus was on whether Shawn Johnson would win the individual all-around gold. After qualifying first overall, the diminutive, bubbly Johnson became the star of the storylines, people hoping for a feel-good story to distract from the "disappointing" silver.
After the first event of the All-Around - the vault - Johnson was indeed in first place, leading to American hopes of another Olympic champion. But she fell to third after the uneven bars, getting passed by China's Yang Yilin and her Russian-born American teammate Nastia Liukin.
Liukin was coached by her father Valeri, a former gold medal-winning gymnast for the Soviet Union, and though she had been competing with Johnson every step of the way in the leadup to the games, she was still viewed as the underdog.
Johnson put in a great performance in the balance beam, but Liukin was in full control at this point, topping her teammate by a 10th of a point. When Yang put in a mediocre performance, it was Liukin, not Johnson, who was in the lead. Johnson and Liukin then tied for the best score in the floor exercise, and when Yang stumbled again, the Americans had more than made up for their team silver with the gold and the silver in the individual all-around. It was only the fourth time two women from the same country had gone 1-2 in the all-around, and the first time Americans had done it. Liukin also joined Mary Lou Retton and Carly Patterson as American all-around champions, completing her feat one Olympics after Patterson.
After the individual all-around, the athletes turned to the individual event finals, where Liukin two more silvers and a bronze. With her five medals, she was the most decorated female gymnast at Beijing.
Wednesday, August 18, 2010
August 18, 2004: A golden routine
ATHENS - As Paul Hamm over-rotated on his landing after the vault and tumbled into the judges' table, his dreams of an all-around gold seemed to be falling away. His distastrous landing left him in 12th place with only two events to go, a perilous position for someone with medal hopes.
But Hamm kept on, finishing first in the parallel bars portion of the all-around, then watching as competitor after competitor fell or made other uncharacteristic mistakes. Suddenly, he was back in first going into the horizontal bar, the final event, but it was close. He'd need something close to perfect to win the gold.
Well, he was something close to perfect. His 9.837 score in the horizontal bar topped the competition, making him the first American male to win all-around gymnastics gold.
It hadn't been easy for Hamm to win the gold medal, and it wasn't easy for him to keep it, either. After the results were posted, South Korea's delegation protest, saying that Yang Tae-Yeong, the bronze medalist, had been unfairly docked points for his parallel bar routine; the Koreans said his routine had been given a starting value of 9.9, when it should have been a 10.0; the difference would have been enough to give Yang the gold.
The Americans countered with two points: first, they said that Yang had made a mistake in his routine that hadn't been caught, and that he should have been deducted 0.2 points, which would have dropped him from medal contention; second, they said that had Yang's score been assigned properly, Hamm, who went after Yang, would have altered his approach and tried a more difficult routine himself in an attempt to make up the difference.
The FIG, gymnastics' international governing body, declined to change the results, accepting South Korea's argument about improper scoring but saying the protest came too late in the competition to overturn the results. The FIG wrote a letter to Hamm saying that they would not strip him of his gold, but saying that him returning the medal on his own would be in the best interest of sportsmanship; the U.S. federation, outraged, refused to forward the letter, instead writing a letter of complaint to the FIG.
After all the political hang-wringing, Hamm is still recognized as the 2004 all-around gold medalist, the only American male with that distinction.
Hamm's final event, the horizontal bar:
But Hamm kept on, finishing first in the parallel bars portion of the all-around, then watching as competitor after competitor fell or made other uncharacteristic mistakes. Suddenly, he was back in first going into the horizontal bar, the final event, but it was close. He'd need something close to perfect to win the gold.
Well, he was something close to perfect. His 9.837 score in the horizontal bar topped the competition, making him the first American male to win all-around gymnastics gold.
It hadn't been easy for Hamm to win the gold medal, and it wasn't easy for him to keep it, either. After the results were posted, South Korea's delegation protest, saying that Yang Tae-Yeong, the bronze medalist, had been unfairly docked points for his parallel bar routine; the Koreans said his routine had been given a starting value of 9.9, when it should have been a 10.0; the difference would have been enough to give Yang the gold.
The Americans countered with two points: first, they said that Yang had made a mistake in his routine that hadn't been caught, and that he should have been deducted 0.2 points, which would have dropped him from medal contention; second, they said that had Yang's score been assigned properly, Hamm, who went after Yang, would have altered his approach and tried a more difficult routine himself in an attempt to make up the difference.
The FIG, gymnastics' international governing body, declined to change the results, accepting South Korea's argument about improper scoring but saying the protest came too late in the competition to overturn the results. The FIG wrote a letter to Hamm saying that they would not strip him of his gold, but saying that him returning the medal on his own would be in the best interest of sportsmanship; the U.S. federation, outraged, refused to forward the letter, instead writing a letter of complaint to the FIG.
After all the political hang-wringing, Hamm is still recognized as the 2004 all-around gold medalist, the only American male with that distinction.
Hamm's final event, the horizontal bar:
Tuesday, August 3, 2010
August 3, 1984: America's sweetheart
LOS ANGELES - As an 8-year-old in Fairmont, West Virginia, Mary Lou Retton watched the 1976 Olympics with awe. She watched as Romania's Nadia Comaneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympics gymnastics history. Retton was instantly inspired, deciding to persue her own career in gymnastics.
Fast-forward eight years later, and the Olympics were in Los Angeles. Now 16, Retton was the centerpiece of the U.S. gymnastics team. Because of the Soviet-led boycott, the individual all-around championship was up in the air; of the traditional communist gymnastics powers, only Romania was competing.
After two events of the all-around competition, Retton was in a close battle for the gold, closely trailing Romania's Ecaterina Szabó. She had become America's sweetheart, had the following of an entire country. This was the best opportunity yet for an all-around gold medalist to come from somewhere other than the Soviet bloc.
Knowing the hopes of a nation were riding on her 4-foot-8 frame, Retton remembered back to her 8-year-old self, sitting at home watching Comaneci get those perfect scores in Montreal. She stepped onto the mat for the floor excercise as an American hope. She stepped off as an Olympic legend.
Retton's perfect 10 on the floor routine amazed the country. She vaulted into the lead, instantly becoming the most famous athlete in America. But she still had one event to go to clinch the gold, and she likely needed another perfect score to ensure victory. No worries. Another perfect 10 followed, this time in the vault, and the gold was hers.
Retton won four more medals at the '84 Olympics, as team USA took advantage of the missing Soviets, but everybody remembered the all-around gold. Her fame was instant - she became the first female athlete to appear on a Wheaties box, she appeared in political ads for Ronald Reagan, she was named Sports Illustrated's Sportswoman of the Year. Nine years later, in 1993, she was named America's most popular athlete in an Associated Press poll. And it all started with an 8-year-old watching the Olympics in West Virginia.
Her vault:
Fast-forward eight years later, and the Olympics were in Los Angeles. Now 16, Retton was the centerpiece of the U.S. gymnastics team. Because of the Soviet-led boycott, the individual all-around championship was up in the air; of the traditional communist gymnastics powers, only Romania was competing.
After two events of the all-around competition, Retton was in a close battle for the gold, closely trailing Romania's Ecaterina Szabó. She had become America's sweetheart, had the following of an entire country. This was the best opportunity yet for an all-around gold medalist to come from somewhere other than the Soviet bloc.
Knowing the hopes of a nation were riding on her 4-foot-8 frame, Retton remembered back to her 8-year-old self, sitting at home watching Comaneci get those perfect scores in Montreal. She stepped onto the mat for the floor excercise as an American hope. She stepped off as an Olympic legend.
Retton's perfect 10 on the floor routine amazed the country. She vaulted into the lead, instantly becoming the most famous athlete in America. But she still had one event to go to clinch the gold, and she likely needed another perfect score to ensure victory. No worries. Another perfect 10 followed, this time in the vault, and the gold was hers.
Retton won four more medals at the '84 Olympics, as team USA took advantage of the missing Soviets, but everybody remembered the all-around gold. Her fame was instant - she became the first female athlete to appear on a Wheaties box, she appeared in political ads for Ronald Reagan, she was named Sports Illustrated's Sportswoman of the Year. Nine years later, in 1993, she was named America's most popular athlete in an Associated Press poll. And it all started with an 8-year-old watching the Olympics in West Virginia.
Her vault:
Friday, July 23, 2010
July 23, 1996: The second vault
ATLANTA - She knew exactly what she needed: A 9.493 on the vault. Do that, and Kerri Strug would clinch the team gold in gymnastics for the United States. She took off down the runway at full speed, leapt over the pommel, seemed to have it down - until she fell, sitting down on the landing. She got up, shell-shocked at her miss, and limping. She had sprained her ankle. Walking off the mat, preparing for her second vault, she stumbled. She was hurt bad.
Strug looked over to her coach. Do we need this? He answered, we need this. She nodded. Not much was on the line - just the the chance for the Americans to win their first team gold medal in gymnastics. Nothing major.
Strug went back to the start of the runway, took a deep breath, ignored the pain in her ankle, took off again. The same vault, the exact same routine that caused her to fall, caused her teammate to fall twice. This time she stuck it, no stumbling. Lifting her arms for the judges, lifting her damaged left leg to take away the pain, she smiled, finishing the vault. Then she collapsed.
The magnitude of what she had done started to sink in. As her coaches carried her off the mat, people fully realized how injured she really was. Putting two and two together, they started to figure out that she got hurt on the first vault, that she went out and did the second one anyway because her team needed her to step up. Jeopardizing her chance at an individual gold medal later in the games, Kerri Strug had just vaulted into American lore, completing perhaps the most famous example of performing under adversity in Olympic history.
The images from that day are ingrained in our memory. Strug biting her lip and lifting her injured leg at the end of the vault, appearing larger than life, like a true superhero. An injured Strug being carried to the medal stand by her coach, looking like a child in his huge arms. An image nobody will ever forget.
The little-known fact about that jump: because Russia's Roza Galieva had a poor score on the floor routine that rotation, the U.S. didn't actually need Strug's second, heroic vault to win the gold. They would have gotten it even after throwing out her score. But in the few moments between her first and second vaults, they didn't know that. So she had to do it.
Strug never competed again. The injury she suffered in the last vault kept her out of the individual competitions that she had qualified for at Atlanta, and after the Olympics, she retired to attend college. Perhaps it's just as well. It's hard to cap a career any better than she did.
Strug looked over to her coach. Do we need this? He answered, we need this. She nodded. Not much was on the line - just the the chance for the Americans to win their first team gold medal in gymnastics. Nothing major.
Strug went back to the start of the runway, took a deep breath, ignored the pain in her ankle, took off again. The same vault, the exact same routine that caused her to fall, caused her teammate to fall twice. This time she stuck it, no stumbling. Lifting her arms for the judges, lifting her damaged left leg to take away the pain, she smiled, finishing the vault. Then she collapsed.
The magnitude of what she had done started to sink in. As her coaches carried her off the mat, people fully realized how injured she really was. Putting two and two together, they started to figure out that she got hurt on the first vault, that she went out and did the second one anyway because her team needed her to step up. Jeopardizing her chance at an individual gold medal later in the games, Kerri Strug had just vaulted into American lore, completing perhaps the most famous example of performing under adversity in Olympic history.
The images from that day are ingrained in our memory. Strug biting her lip and lifting her injured leg at the end of the vault, appearing larger than life, like a true superhero. An injured Strug being carried to the medal stand by her coach, looking like a child in his huge arms. An image nobody will ever forget.
The little-known fact about that jump: because Russia's Roza Galieva had a poor score on the floor routine that rotation, the U.S. didn't actually need Strug's second, heroic vault to win the gold. They would have gotten it even after throwing out her score. But in the few moments between her first and second vaults, they didn't know that. So she had to do it.
Strug never competed again. The injury she suffered in the last vault kept her out of the individual competitions that she had qualified for at Atlanta, and after the Olympics, she retired to attend college. Perhaps it's just as well. It's hard to cap a career any better than she did.
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