Gabby Douglas tells Oprah Winfrey of bullying, racism [Video]

By Chuck Schilken

Aug. 27, 2012 12 AM PT

&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;runtime:topic id=”PESPT0015842”&amp;gt;Gabby Douglas&amp;lt;/runtime:topic&amp;gt; faced a tough road on her way to becoming America’s sweetheart and a two-time Olympic gold medalist with the U.S. women’s gymnastics team.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;The fact that she moved away from her family in Virginia to train in Iowa at age 14 became well known during the London Games. But Douglas and her mother, Natalie Hawkins, revealed to Oprah Winfrey on Sunday’s episode of “Oprah’s Next Chapter” on OWN that there was another reason she wanted to leave her home gym in Virginia Beach.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;”I felt [I was] being bullied,” said Douglas, who won the all-around gold medal as well as team gold in London.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Hawkins told Winfrey that Douglas started asking to move away at age 11 and even discussed leaving the sport at age 14.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;”She said, ‘I’d rather quit. If I can’t move and train and get another coach, I’d rather quit the sport’ ” Hawkins said.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Douglas said some of the bullying was racial in nature, &amp;lt;a href=”https://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/27/gabby-douglas-called-slave-oprahs-next-chapter-video_n_1832709.html”&amp;gt;describing&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; one incident involving the scraping of the bars in the gym. “They’re like, ‘Why doesn’t Gabby do it? She’s our slave.”&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;She added: “”I definitely felt isolated. I felt, ‘Why am I deserving this? Is it because I’m black?’ Those thoughts would go through my mind.”&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;Of course, there were plenty of uplifting moments on the episode as well, including a fun &amp;lt;a href=”https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Oie1sZyDWNw”&amp;gt;segment&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt; with Douglas, her mother, siblings and grandfather.&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;ALSO:&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-roger-clemens-comeback-20120825,0,1472865.story”&amp;gt;Roger Clemens looks good in return . . . next stop &amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a class=”taxInlineTagLink” href=”https://www.latimes.com/topic/sports/baseball/major-league-baseball-T15007055.topic”&amp;gt;MLB&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;?&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-lance-armstrong-marathon-20120825,0,232311.story”&amp;gt;Lance Armstrong skips marathon during a long weekend&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;strong&amp;gt;&amp;lt;br /&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/strong&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;p&amp;gt;&amp;lt;a href=”https://www.latimes.com/sports/sportsnow/la-sp-sn-paralympics-boosting-20120827,0,4059980.story”&amp;gt;Paralympics: Some athletes use pain as performance enhancer&amp;lt;/a&amp;gt;&amp;lt;/p&amp;gt;

Gabby Douglas tells Oprah Winfrey of bullying, racism [Video]

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