Olympic champ Gabby Douglas wilts under spotlight as teammate Aly Raisman is solid gold
The dogs will run around, wag their tails and remind Douglas what home was like before she relocated to Iowa, joining an adoptive family and a new coach in 2010. She's ready for the adulation, she says, from both the dogs and her fans.
"There's gonna be parades," she said on Tuesday. "It's gonna be insane, but I'm ready for it. I made the history books."
Douglas has endured questions here about her distant relationship with her dad, who was at the Olympic trials in San Jose but did not come to London. She has not been in contact with him, and has blamed him for the family's financial problems.
Yet another minor controversy popped up on Tuesday, when a fake Gabby Douglas began posting on Facebook.
"I only have a twitter account," Douglas said. "I don't know what this is about."
If she weren't a steadfast competitor by nature and training, Douglas might have skipped her final two individual events during the last two days of the Olympics, leaving everyone with a fresh memory of her two triumphs in all-around and team gymnastics.
Michael Regan/Getty Images
All-around champ Gabby Douglas can't add to her London medal haul as she slips on the balance beam.
But Douglas showed up again on Tuesday – at least in body, if not in mind – for another flagging performance, this time a routine on the balance beam. Her right foot slipped off the beam on a change-of-direction leap – "I rushed myself," she said – and Douglas fell off the thin apparatus. She found herself hanging on to the beam from below in undignified fashion before dropping to the mat. She finished seventh out of eight competitors, after she was eighth and last on Monday on the uneven bars.
Gabby Douglas - ROLF VENNENBERND/EPA
None of this seemed to daunt the all-around and team champion.
"We're not losers," Douglas said, after receiving a 13.166 on her beam routine, nearly two points behind gold medalist Linlin Deng of China. "We're superheroes. We do tricks no one can do.
"We're all humans," Douglas said. "We all make mistakes. We're 16-year-olds and have a lot of pressure on our shoulders. That's kind of a lot for a teenager."
Dominique Dawes, part of the Magnificent Seven team in 1996 that won gold in Atlanta, said there was never be any doubt Douglas would compete in these last two events, even if she were a longshot for a medal.
"These are the Olympics and you're always going to want to go out strong," Dawes said. "The girl made history. We're happy to pass the torch to these girls."
Danell Leyva finished fifth and Jonathan Horton was sixth on the horizontal bar, an event won by Epke Zonderland of the Netherlands.
Aly Raisman - Ben Stansall/Getty Images
ALY SHINES: Aly Raisman, the gymnastics team captain who played second fiddle all week to Douglas, grabbed gold Tuesday in the floor exercise and bronze on the beam.
Raisman made three relatively clean tumbling passes, though she stepped out of bounds briefly on a dance move. Raisman, who is Jewish, performed her routine to "Hava Nagila."
Raisman finished with three medals, one more than Douglas, who finished seventh on Tuesday on the beam. The crowd was not happy that Raisman defeated 2004 gold medalist Catalina Ponor of Romania, who performed a smoother, more aesthetically pleasing routine. The fans jeered when Ponor was placed second. But Raisman's routine was more difficult, rated a 6.5, while Ponor's difficulty was 6.2.
Earlier, Raisman was awarded bronze ahead on the beam of Ponor on a successful appeal by her coach that increased her difficulty score.
What's Your Reaction?
Like
0
Dislike
0
Love
0
Funny
0
Angry
0
Sad
0
Wow
0
