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Gabby Douglas Bullied, Gymnast Admits Bullying Nearly Forced Her To Quit

By | Published on August 26, 2012
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Gabby Douglas Bullied –Gabby Douglas nearly quit gymnastics because of bullying – lucky for us she stuck it through. The Olympian gold medalist, accompanied by her mother Natalie Hawkins shared stories of times she was bullied.

In advance of Gabby Douglas’ appearance on Oprah Winfrey’s show on OWN, the show released a clip featuring Gabby and her mother telling Oprah that the she nearly quit the sport two years ago because she was made to feel “different.”

“She started asking to move away, she wanted the family to move at first, when she was about 11,” her mother Natalie Hawkins told Oprah while Gabby sat next to her.

Her mother revealed that when Gabby was 14, she said told her mother that if she couldn’t move away from the bullying and get a new coach, she’d rather quit the sport.

“I felt like I was bullied and isolated from the group, and they treated me not how they would treat the other teammates,” Gabby said to Oprah.

It’s ironic that Gabby talks about being bullied back home in Virginia Beach to the point where she threatened to quit, because her old coaches in Virginia Beach have been grumbling about how they should be getting more credit for her development. Apparently, the attention she got at their gym almost drove her from the sport.

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