It's the best time of year (that only happens every four years): the Summer Olympics. Everyone knows how big the Olympics are, and with any huge event there is bound to be some kind of controversy. Whether it's about what an athlete did or didn't do, what a commentator or reporter said, someone thinking an athlete should have scored better and many other things. One of the biggest controversies I have noticed, or maybe it is because I pay the most attention to this sport, is with the USA women's gymnastic team. In particular, with Gabby Douglas.
There has been two huge controversies surrounding Gabby, the first being her not putting her hand over her heart during the national anthem. Gabby was accused of being unpatriotic and disrespecting her country. Let's think about this for a second, though. This is the second time Gabby has been to the Olympics representing the United States. Do we really think she would disrespect or hate a country she has represented twice? I don't think so. She is a 20-year-old young girl who was probably just caught up in the moment. She has since apologized but people are still criticizing her for it. She's human and she made a mistake, let's give her a little bit of break.
The second controversy surrounding Gabby is that she has not been a supportive teammate. If you didn't already know, Gabby won the individual all-around gold in 2012. In the 2016 Rio games, Gabby placed third in the trials for the individual all-around with Simone Biles placing first and Aly Raisman placing second. The two per country rule kept Gabby from getting to compete in the individual all-around. Now, if you were the reigning champion would you not be heartbroken that you didn't get a chance to defend your title? I know I would be. The Olympics isn't just something you work a couple years for, but your whole life. It's understandable that she is heartbroken. Just because Gabby is upset that she didn't get the chance to defend her title, does not mean that she is not supportive or proud of her teammates.
A lot of people are saying that Gabby did not look happy when Simone won gold and Aly won silver but that clip does not show everything. That doesn't show the text message she sent Aly before, the pep talk she may have given Simone and the support they don't show us on TV. Who knows, maybe she was just in shock that the USA just took first and second! We can speculate all we want from what they show us, but it will never show us everything and we will never know 100 percent what is really going on.
Instead of picking apart everything Gabby has done, along with all the other Olympic athletes, lets uplift her and support her. We have no idea what she has been through or what she is going through. She is young and human and makes mistakes. Her mistakes and actions just happens to be for the whole world to see and can be taken out of context.
No matter how the media tries to portray Gabby, I believe she is a good person; isn't unpatriotic; and didn't mean to seem unsupportive of her teammates.
Oh, and she was rockin' that dark red lipstick during the team all-around final. You go, girl!
