Gabby Douglas recently made her second Olympic team, but she is not the girl America fell in love with four years ago. In 2012 Gabby was fun to watch, easy to like and everyone was rooting for her. She smiled and was a good teammate no matter what. I'm not sure what happened to her within four years, but shes not the same. Her attitude, demeanor and likability went from an all time high to and all time low. At Olympic Trials she made a coaching change, fell twice on beam and placed seventh and somehow Marta still put her on the team. This angered a lot of fans and may have changed the sport forever. I was honestly disappointing when Gabby's name was called for the 2016 Olympic team. I don't think she should have been chosen and here is why.
1. Gymnastics should be fun to watch
Gymnastics is such an exciting sport to watch and four years ago Gabby was the most exciting part. Now when I watch her I'm confused. She looks very mean and like she doesn't want to be there. When she was called out for looking mad she told reporters that she was just trying to focus. You can be focused and serious and still smile and look happy. No matter what you have going on in your life you need to leave that for off the floor. As a viewer, fan and former gymnast I should not want to fast forward through her routines, but unfortunately I do. The 13 other gymnasts at trials were fun to watch, energetic and had me glued to my tv.
2. She placed seventh
Gabby took seventh place after night two of the Olympic Trials. Team USA takes five gymnasts so if they were going off points Gabby should not be going, but they do not. Gabby is being taken to Rio solely for bars and that would mean she is a bars specialist yet Ashton Locklear who scored .45 higher than Gabby on bars is just an alternate. If the US wanted to take two bars specialists then they should've taken the top two bars scores especially since Gabby and Ashton's scores weren't even close.
3. She is not a good teammate
Despite the circumstances of there only being five spots on the Olympic team all the girls are friends. They have spent so much time together at training camps and competitions over the years that they are like sisters. After every routine, good or bad, they would all celebrate together. Once someone landed a routine they would all rush over and hug and high five and they were sometimes caught being silly with each other in between routines The one person that was no where to be found was Gabby Douglas. She would sit alone, congratulate no one and never was ran over to after a routine. I know the Olympics are about what you do during competition, but what your like off the floor helps determine that.
4. She fell twice
As trials were approaching all we heard about was consistency. Marta wanted girls she could count on. During day one of competition Gabby fell on a simple skill, a turn. I was trying to give her the benefit of the doubt and just thought everyone makes mistakes. Day two rolled around and she fell for a second time. This is not someone consistent no matter if she is doing beam at the Olympics or not. This is not someone I would count on to hit routines on the biggest stage with the highest stakes. This is especially hard when there were many other girls who hit eight out of eight routines with no falls who are just as capable as Gabby Douglas, but were not chosen.
5. She made a coaching change right before Olympic trials
Gabby has always been accused of being a gym hopper. She has been to many gyms throughout her career and even switched gyms after taking home gold in the 2012 Olympics. She found her new gym in Columbus, Ohio at Buckeye Gymnastics, with head coach Kittia Carpenter. Kittia has been with Gabby at international competitions over the past two years and then all of a sudden at Olympic Trials Kittia is in the stands and there is a new coach on the competition floor. His name is Christian Gallardo and he is a coach at Buckeye Gymnastics. Gabby claims she wanted someone out on the floor who could spot her, but I haven't seen Gabby needing spotted on anything during competition for as long as she has been at the elite level. Even Marta made a statement saying "Gabby told me about this change. I would not have done it". The added publicity and stress of this change was not worth it in my opinion. Her mental toughness and focus had to have been affected.
My heart breaks for gymnasts like MyKayla Skinner, Ragan Smith and Maggie Nicholas. These girls are all fun to watch, good teammates and had solid performances at trials and even placed above Gabby, but will not get to see the floor in Rio. At this point we cannot do anything about the five girls chosen to represent the USA in Rio besides getting behind them and hoping for the best. I hope Gabby goes to Rio with a new attitude and realizes how lucky she is for being chosen after two falls and a seventh place finish. Most of all I hope she remembers the reason she fell in love with gymnastics in the first place. I want to enjoy watching Gabby compete again.
