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Quote of the Day: Gabby Douglas

gabby douglas

 

“Never give up and always keep fighting, because though times may be tough, the sacrifices do pay off, so just keep pushing towards your dream and just love it at the same time and enjoy it.”

 

Speaking from personal experience, Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas shared these encouraging words at a charity event before the Mets game on Thursday where she threw out the ceremonial first pitch.

In a recent interview with Oprah Winfrey, the 16-year-old relayed that she was bullied by her former teammates at a Virginia Beach gym where she trained.

“I was just, you know, kind of getting racist jokes, kind of being isolated from the group. So it was definitely hard. I would come home at night and just cry my eyes out,” said Douglas.

It got so bad that she told her mom she’d “quit the sport,” if she couldn’t move and train under another coach.

Obviously things picked up for Douglas after the move. (She went on to become the first African-American gymnast to win the individual all-around gold. And the first American to win gold in both individual all-around and team competitions at the same Olympics.) But, there are 160,000 young people in the U.S. who skip school every day because of bullying.

What the what?

Take this quiz and give your school a bully grade. GO [1]

 

Gabby Douglas [2]
Bullying and Violence [3]
Bullying [4]

Source URL: http://www.dosomething.org/blog/quote-day-gabby-douglas

Links:
[1] http://apps.facebook.com/bullysurvey/
[2] http://www.dosomething.org/category/celebrity-name-tags/gabby-douglas
[3] http://www.dosomething.org/cause/bullying-and-violence
[4] http://www.dosomething.org/issues/bullying