Gabby Douglas, 2012 Olympic women’s gymnastics all-around champion. She is the first black gymnast in Olympic history to medal in the individual all-around, and the first woman of color to win the gold.

(Source: gaypocalypse)

wayoutspacedout:

kariprocrastinates:

This really shows the true spirit of the Olympic games. Turkish runner Merve Aydin injured herself during an 800m heat, but still carried on a whole lap visibly in excruciating pain before limping over the finish line and falling to the floor in tears to the cheers of 80,000 fans in the Olympic stadium. Respect

Oh my god poor girl! But WAY TO FINISH!

bb. oh bb

(Source: seanmorrisons)

nerdyninjanicole:

Even though she grew up playing football, shooting hoops and running races against all the boys in her neighborhood, U.S. 800-meter champion Alysia Montano never wanted to be thought of as one of them.

As a result, she started wearing a flower behind her right ear to remind the boys they were getting beat by a girl.

“The flower to me means strength with femininity. I think that a lot of people say things like you run like a girl. That doesn’t mean you have to run soft or you have to run dainty. It means that you’re strong.”

(Source) 

latxcvi:

abarero:

TEAM USA TEAM LADIES

Of the 46 gold medals won by Team USA, 29 of them were won by the women’s team.  As a friend noted elsewhere today, to put it in perspective: if the USA women’s team had been their own country, they would have tied the host country, Great Britain, for fourth place in gold medals.

So hell yeah to running - or kicking, shooting, hitting, swinging, rowing, fighting, etc. - like a girl.

motherjones:

kateoplis:

Holy shitballs, girls; I LUFF you!! USA!!

Endorse.

(Source: The New York Times)

pellismoonster:

“Ally Rainsman really reigned in Gabby in the time of need”— Gabby scored 1/3 of the team’s points. [n-i-h-i-l added]

“She trained with Shawn Johnson which REALLY must have had some effect on her”— many gymnasts have trained under professionals. [n-i-h-i-l added]

“Gabby has a lead…not by much but, we hope she takes advantage of it”—Gabby consistently scored better (on average) than her teammates.[n-i-h-i-l added]

Not to mention they contributed the all-around success to Alexandra saying that she was the clincher… [cum-fraiche added]

and “ooh, lets talk about Jordyn not making the all around ten times more than Gabby being the highest scorer in all four events” [withasideofswag added]

The first Women’s Gymnastics team win since ‘96, but it was deemed “not all that amazing” by NBC.

Airing a commercial featuring a monkey doing gymnastics right after Gabby’s win. During all the commercials for other athletes and their wins they showed appropriate commercials featuring them and their talents. For example: the swimmer Rebecca Soni was featured in her own commercial beating her world record score. Gabby got a monkey. 

Also, when Gabby did her vault: NBC on Gabby - “That wasn’t great…but she’ll take it” (she gets the highest score on the fucking thing, a 15.966) NBC on Aly - “That was an AMAZING vault! She’s off to a great start!” (scores very well, but lower than Gabby) Yeah. NBC hates that a black girl won the whole thing. [boehner-trollolol added]

NBC’s “Fab Five” commercial that conveniently forgot she existed [cynical-douche added]

I believe Gabby was also the first American (female) gymnast to win a gold medal in both the group and AA events. As of yet, I haven’t heard much mention of that from NBC/other news networks. [alldolleddown added]

On Raisman’s bars performance, the ending comment was “very good.”  On Douglas’, it was “Interesting.” [pluckyduck added]

The morning after her win, GMA gave Aly a one-on-one interview about her achievements and loss, while Gabby’s interview was a group interview where she had to share screentime with gold medalists that had come before her. 

(Source: bijunn)

(Source: marisaseguin.blogspot.co.uk)

jorahs:

katiemorrison94:

My new favorite GIF ever. Harry is the biggest third wheel in the history of life. Thank God for this GIF. 

I mean, I just don’t understand where he gets it from.

Gabrielle Douglas captures gold in the women’s gymnastics all-around competition. She becomes the first African-American woman to win this title and the first American woman to capture gold in both individual and team events in the same Olympics.

(Source: jetgirl78)

express-junkie:

Gabby Douglas leads Team USA to the Gold.

knownrivers:

glamaphonic:

b4k4s:

UPDATE: Gabby Douglas leads Team USA to the Gold.

crunkfeministcollective:

I purposely titled this essay to highlight Gabby Douglas’ leadership of the USA Women’s Gymnastics Olympic Team, which she led to victory yesterday, by capturing 33% or 1/3 of the total points  the team received.

You heard right. This kid, who commentators continue to suggest is “unable to handle the pressure,” was the only member to compete in all four events — vault, bars, beam, and floor.

So though she’s only 1/5 of the team, she did 100% of the events, and captured 1/3 of the points.

Of course she didn’t get 33% of the coverage, or even a quarter of the love her teammates got.

During the medal ceremony the camera panned to and stayed with Jordyn, ofttimes obscuring Gabby’s face. Commentators were exultant about Jordyn’s gold medal. “Jordyn’s gold.” As though there were a medal with her name already engraved on it or something.

But um…

The Olympics trades in Gold Medals, not Gold Stars! Put another way, there are no “A’s for effort.”

I want to be clear. I have nothing but love for Jordyn. She’s the reigning world champ. She’s mega talented, and she showed up for Team USA in a major way yesterday. I do not want to diminish her accomplishments in any way in this post.

But I take serious issue with the media’s coverage of her accomplishments and the sense of white entitlement that permeates that coverage. The coverage magnifies Jordyn’s victories, while minimizing Gabby’s. And it isn’t right. Not to mention that it is classic passive aggressive white racism. (Yeah, I said it.) The kind that injures not by heaping insults but by failing to grant recognition, when it has power to do so.

Gabby didn’t receive the low score in any of her four events, and she received the highest score in two of them (beam and bars). (See all scores here. Click on the plus out to the side for individual scores in each event.) Gabby outscored Jordyn on each of the three events they competed in yesterday, and she outscored Aly in one of two events. She didn’t put up one score less than a 15.066 in any event.

The first to do floor, Gabby’s performance received a score of 15.066. Solid. I literally waited on the commentators to find anything good to say about the routine. *Crickets* They said virtually nothing. And then Jordyn performed. They were glowing with accolades and affirmations for her, in a routine that was technically less difficult than Gabby’s. When the scores came back, Jordyn had a 15.000. And you could almost hear the disappointment, not at Jordyn’s solid score, but that it was lower than Gabby’s.

I guess I should be happy that at least this time, the media found it appropriate to actually pan to some shots of Gabby’s family watching in the audience. But unlike her counterparts, they never said who those three Black people were. I guess we could just Match them up based on skin tone. Contrast that with the fact that every time they panned to Aly’s or Jordyn’s parents, there would be some commentary about their reactions.

I am extremely proud of team USA. I hope that is clear. I watched the Magnificent 7 win Gold in 1996. Most of these girls were barely toddlers then! After the interview, they talked about the 2004 Olympics as their most memorable one. Made me feel O.L.D. So it was truly awesome to watch us return to that former glory. And these girls deserve every bit of shine they get.

And I am determined at least in this space that Gabby will get her just due.

Because let’s be clear.

Gabby showed up for her team in each and every event, and in Black vernacular, she showed out! But that reminds me of some more ol’ school Black wisdom, too– “you have to be twice as good, to get half as far.” Every Black kid hears this at some point in her lifetime. It still rings true. And what our parents don’t say is that even then, you still might be invisible. Invisible, that is,  in your accomplishments. Your flaws won’t be treated half so graciously.

Anyway, brush your shoulders off, Gabby. (Check her doing just that at the 1:02 mark!)

bob-costas-talks-to-the-fabulous-five-after-gold.html

They may not see you coming, Gabby. But know this. We see you! We SEE you!  And we are cheering you on! #yougotthis

My issue originally was that it was obvious Jordyn got shafted out of her individual position, not because of the color of her skin, but because Gabby was atrocious on her floor routine and somehow scored higher. But the media needs to move on, Gabby is more than capable and constantly proves she can hang with the big kids, and it isn’t appropriate to keep brooding over what could have been. Gabby is fantastic, deserves every accolade she gets, and I hope we see more of her in the next Olympics.

Jordyn didn’t get shafted out of anything. Gabby scored a 13.7 on floor. That’s a hideous score, especially considering she score 15.066 with a hit routine. Her mistake on her double arabian pass cost her over a full point. .3 for the OOB, .1 off of her difficulty score for not connecting the stag leap, and .8 for her steps. Jordyn got a 14.6 on floor in prelims because she didn’t stick her passes and flubbed some of her dance skills. Gabby DESTROYED Jordyn on the other three events. She had over a point lead going into floor. She could afford to have a mistake and still beat Jordyn because she is flatly just that much better than her. MATH! It’s some wild shit! For months, the Russian media didn’t have a word to say about Jordyn Wieber, but would not stop talking about how their gymnasts compared to “The Flying Squirrel.” Gabby did all four events in team finals. Jordyn had the lowest score on all three events that she did. Gabby put up an unthinkably massive 61+ AA total. She is officially the FAVORITE to win the Olympic AA title. Gabby isn’t “hanging with the big kids” she is the biggest fucking kid on the block.

Fab commentary from crunkfeminist and glamaphonic but who is you with that “proves she can hang with the big kids”?


See.. black people, no matter how accomplished and down right astonishing their achievements are, will always have to prove themselves worthy. That’s some shit, always and forever.

paperwings25:

I see you putting on your charm for the ref, Pinoe.

liminalzone:

#I FEEL ABOUT 100X GAYER AFTER THIS

GIRL.

(Source: nuggits)