Gabrielle Douglas is a US Women’s Artistic gymnast. She went on to achieve international stardom at London 2012 when she became the US gymnast to secure both all-around titles at the same Games.
According to her, her first introduction to gymnastics was through her older sister Arielle. “She used to be a gymnast, and I saw her doing gymnastics drills. I wanted to do what she was doing, so she taught me how to do my first cartwheel. My mom says that by the end of the week, I was teaching myself one-armed cartwheels and aerials and my sister was like, “You need to put this kid in gymnastics.”
“I never knew what it actually took to get to the Olympics”, Douglas said, “I thought it was: Train. Make it on the team. Go to the Olympics. I had to sacrifice a normal kind of life for gymnastics, but I didn’t mind.”
“I sacrificed my privacy and my life. Gymnastics is what I was going to eat, breathe and sleep, ” she said.
Here are five things about the 24-year-old woman who made history when she was only a teenager.
