Gabby Douglas' Virginia Gym Cries Fraud; Oprah No. 1 Celebrity Earner

By Popular Critic | Published on August 28, 2012

Gabby Douglas, Oprah Winfrey – Gabby Douglas, the gold medal Olympian sat down with Oprah Winfrey and recalled tales of being bullied at the gym where she trained in Virginia Beach. The 16-year old stated, “One of my teammates was like, ‘Can you scrape the bar? And they were like, ‘Why doesn’t Gabby do it, she’s our slave?’ I definitely felt isolated, I felt why am I deserving this? Is it because I’m black? Those thoughts would go through my mind.”

“Gabby’s remarks were hurtful and without merit,” Excalibur Gymnastics CEO Gustavo Maure said in a statement.”We’ve had more African Americans in elite and on the national team than any other gym in the country (5, 2 of them in Olympic Trials or Olympic Team Camp). Her African American former teammates will answer this serious accusation. (1st statement untruth, she was not the only African American gymnast training in the gym) We are good people. We never were knowingly involved in any type of bullying or racist treatment, like she is accusing Excalibur.”

The backlash over the comments will likely increase after Oprah’s Next Chapter airs.

Meanwhile Forbes has released its list for the highest paid celebrities and for the fourth year in a row Oprah Winfrey sits on top.

From May 2011 to May 2012 the media mogul raked in $125 million! Oprah’s diversified portfolio includes O: The Oprah Magazine, spin-off shows like The Dr. Oz Show, Dr. Phil, Rache Ray and a radio deal with Sirius.

Subscribe To The ABS Newsletter — Get our stories in your inbox.

Independent journalism still matters.

We hope this story was worth your time. For over 14 years, Atlanta Black Star has stayed Black-owned and independently run. We didn't get here by waiting on ad budgets that were never built to prioritize us. Our readers did that.

Corporate support for Black media has always been thin. Outlets like ours get roughly 1% of the $170 billion spent on U.S. advertising each year, and that margin is shrinking further as advertisers walk back the DEI-linked commitments they made in 2020. That's the backdrop. It's not why we're asking.

The wider picture isn't any steadier. Newspaper ad revenue has fallen more than 80% since 2005, and local newsrooms are closing at a rate of roughly two a week nationwide. When outlets go under, it's rarely the ones built to center a Black perspective from the ground up that get to stick around.

We know a request for support isn't why you came here. But without readers choosing to fund this work directly, the depth of reporting we can do at home and abroad shrinks along with everyone else's. If you're not in a position to give, that doesn't change how much we value you as a reader.

If you are able to, a recurring contribution does more for us than a single one-time gift, because it lets us plan the next investigation instead of just the next invoice. It takes about 30 seconds, no long form, no account. Thank you for continuing to support independent journalism and freedom of the press.

Give once Give monthly Support another way