Gabby (late nicknamed Flying Squirrel) was born in Virginia Beach, Virginia, sharing a house with 3 siblings and mom and dad, Timothy Douglas and Natalie Hawkins. Her older sister Arielle started of her career at age six when convincing their mom Natalie to enroll Gabby in gymnastics. By eight years old gabby had won the level four all-around gymnastics title while competing in the 2004 Virginia State Championships. Tragically in 2009 Douglas suffered a fracture to her wrist. Due to her injury she was unable to compete in several events.
Throughout her senior career, Gabby competed in competitions around the globe, including Italy, Japan, and performed at Madison Square Garden. In 2012 she secured the only guaranteed the only secured spot on the Womens Olympic gymnastics team by placing first in all-around
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Gabby and her Olympic teammates were feature on Sport Illustrated in 2012. Gabby made herself known by media when she was placed on the cover of Time Magazine and on boxes of Kelloggs and Wheaties. She spoke out about how racist bullying nearly made her quit the sport in an interview with Oprah. She also released her autobiography in December of 2012 ‘Grace, Gold, and Glory: My Leap of Faith’ which climbed to the top at number four for young adult best sellers in the New York Times. In 2015 Oxygen Channel announced a reality TV show to follow the Douglas’.
2013 her family made the commitment to support Gabby by moving to California, but soon moved to Iowa train with previous home trainer Liang Chow. In 2014 she left Chows gym and later Gabby packed her things and moved on to Ohio to train with Kittia Carpenter.
In the 2012 Olympic Games Gabby Douglas was the first african american women to be crowned as the individual all around champion. Alongside her teammates or also known as “The Fierce Five” they conqured the 2012 summer london Olympics and became inspirations all around the world for young