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Last week I got the chance to celebrate the homecoming of Olympic gold medalist gymnast Gabby Douglas. Gabby was part of the fierce five that won gold in London. In addition to winning the team gold she also won gold in the all-around. This year Gabby attended the Olympics again as part of the final five. This Gabby Douglas Nike event with a q&a was held at The Grove in Los Angeles.
Earlier this year I was blessed to get to watch Gabby compete with one of her London teammates Jordyn Wieber. You can read all about that experience here.
The event, sponsored by Nike and Teen Vogue, was held at The Grove in Los Angeles, California. I found out about the event through twitter. If you want to find out about events like this make sure to join my email list so that you can be in my private Facebook group. In order to attend the event I had to register with Nike.
This was not the first event that I have attend at The Grove. I have attended the red carpet premiere of Fuller House, a Christmas tree lighting with Meghan Trainor & Seth MacFarlene, a Pretty Little Liars event and more! This by far was the most unorganized event. When I went to check in I was redirected to a line only to then be redirected back to where I started. That was annoying but not that bad. What was bad was everyone being told that we could meet Gabby inside the Nike store after the q&a. Myself and others waited in line only to be told that we couldn’t meet her. I was disappointed and felt awful when I saw so many people burst into tears. Apparently a few lucky people were somehow able to get a picture with her but the majority of us were not as lucky.
Even though I’m bummed that I didn’t get a chance to meet her I am thankful that I got to attend the event. The q&a was really short. However, she shared a lot of inspiration and encouragement. Earlier this year I bought Gabby’s book Grace, Gold and Glory My Leap of Faith. It was great to hear her have the same passion and sparkle in person that she has in her writing.
Some of you may or may not have known that Gabby received a lot of hate on social media during the Olympics. At first everyone was complaining about her hair. Then people complained because they didn’t think she looked excited enough when she was cheering on her teammates. What she really received a lot of hate for was not putting her hand over her heart during the national anthem when the final five got their medals. Gabby shared that since she comes from a military family it is habit for her to stand at attention. No one deserves those kind of comments but especially not someone who has worked so hard to represent the USA.
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The q&a began with Gabby and the moderator talking about her Teen Vogue cover. This led to them discussing her gold medal which Gabby brought with her. It was awesome to get to see her medal in person though I would have loved to see it up close. She was kind enough of let the moderator wear her medal. I seriously need to become a moderator for these events.
When they talked about Gabby’s Teen Vogue cover they mentioned she had flight delays. Due to the delays she only had an hour to do hair & make up and take the pictures. Gabby said she loved that they captured her beauty, power and flexibility. She shared that she likes to shop everywhere from Saks 5th Avenue, Charolette Rousse, Wet Seal, and Forever 21.
In talking about her experience in Rio she said it felt like London all over again. She mentioned how special it feels to represent USA. When asked what she learned from this experience she said “I learned to always rejoice in every situation. Because Rio definitely wasn’t easy, I got tossed a lot of curve balls. Just be positive about everything. There are so many things to be happy about. So many things to rejoice about. So just always rejoice and take in the positive energy.”
My favorite part was when Gabby encouraged everyone to follow their dreams. Gabby is someone who has been told she couldn’t accomplish her goals. And you know what? She has attended two Olympics and has gold medals from each one. It was beautiful to hear her share her passion for making your dreams come true. Have you ever wondered who Gabby’s inspiration was? She was inspired by Dominique Dawes who represented the USA in three different Olympics.
