Doesn’t Gabby Douglas know Soap Opera’s are being cancelled left and right?

I guess they wrote this article before the Pac Rims because quoting Elfi Schlegel as your “expert” for gymnastics would be like asking Kevin Mchale for NBA trade advice. (for those who don’t understand this is a bad thing. A very bad thing)

Here is an article on Gabby Douglas It reads like a soap opera with bitter exes and ungrateful spoiled children bad mouthing their step parents. Drama, drama, drama.

The story starts with Gabby bad mouthing her ex coaches to time Magazine.

“I wanted to make my Olympic dreams a reality, so I told my Mom, ‘I need a better coach, and I need a better coach now,’ ” Douglas recently told Time magazine

And it continues with disgruntled ex coaches feeling cheated. Can you blame them? It must suck to train a child, see them finally start to reap the rewards of your success only to have them sell you out for the next big thing. You really start to understand where they are coming from when you find out Gabby’s mother borrowed money from them to keep Gabby training. Have you ever heard of a coach paying to coach a gymnast? That is crazy.

This article has a lot of mud slinging from both sides and I am sure the Gabby Apologists are going to start whining about Dena Walker being bitter but the bad words started out of Gabby’s mouth, to time magazine. Anyone being badmouthed would feel the need to fight back.

In the end Gabby really only has herself to answer to if things do not end up how she wants them too. If she wanted to train somewhere else she has every right to do that but if you are going to sling mud then you have to deal with the consequences when it all goes public.

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Other quotes and my opinion,

Hawkins said she first tried to move her entire family in with an uncle in Texas, where Gabby would train with an acclaimed coach. But the coach, out of loyalty to Walker and Moure, would not accept Douglas. The next stop was Chow, who, after calling to tell the Excalibur coaches that Douglas was at his door, took her in.

Woga? Texas Dreams? Which coach actually has some integrity?

What is she to do, she wonders, when her gifted child reports that her coaches openly bicker so much that she’s lost confidence in their shared approach? When her daughter is falling behind rivals because national staffers say she’s being taught skills incorrectly? And when the gym refuses her direct request to alter the coaching arrangement?

“I wasn’t looking to move my child all the way to Iowa,” Hawkins said. “They didn’t leave me a choice but to leave. I won’t tell you all about the dysfunction that was going on in the gym.”

Gabby is 16 so any real fall out from this story is squarely blamed on the parent. The parent who also felt the need to ‘sling mud” I guess the apple does not fall far from the tree. Not only that but Gabby’s mother blaming Gabby being a head case on her ex coaches (Falling behind) lost all merit when Gabby tanked at Pac Rims UNDER Chow.

As for those coaches’ claims that she’s ignoring a debt of $20,000, Hawkins laughs at the figure. Anyway, she said, she has it in writing that Douglas was on full scholarship – with payback necessary only if Excalibur’s coaches got Douglas to the Olympics.

You know what this reminds me of? An episode of People’s court. The boyfriend borrows money from the girlfriend before they break up, then claims he was given the money as a gift. There is no way in hell that the Excaliber coaches lent money to Gabby’s mother and did not expect to be paid back.

Damage to reputation goes both ways, Hawkins said, and if there’s a money issue, “they have my number.”

Someone sounds bitter. Someone needs to shut up before Marta realizes her daughters talent isn’t worth the bad publicity. The 2012 Olympic team isn’t going to sell out fan friendly tours if articles like this exist. Not very likable.