Gabby Douglas Wins the All Around Gold!

and her old gym whines about losing "their" champion...

Gabby's Mom owes Excaliber money
Gym owners are truly a strange breed.  With the money that they could reap from new clients, they really shot themselves in the foot with this whining.

I salute you Gabrielle Douglas not only for helping your team win Gold,  but for being the first African American woman to win the All-Around Gold at the Olympics!  Congratulations to Natalie Hawkins  (Gabby's Mom) and Gabby's siblings for making the sacrifices to help get her there.  Congratulations to Liang Chow , you are a great mentor.  Not only have Shawn Johnson and Gabby Douglas achieved their Olympic goals, but they have also been given the strength to handle themselves under the spotlight because of the confidence that you helped instill in them both.  We can't wait to see all of the champions when they come to town for the Kellogg's Tour of Gymnastics Champions - 2012

Meanwhile:

Emily has been fighting through Osgood-Schlatter's disease for most of the summer, so we've opted to take a month off of hard training as she's in far too much pain to continue her 26 hour a week regimen.  It's really close to competition season, but I'd rather she made it to adulthood without tearing out both knees.  Sorry, but it's a Mom Thing.   There will be a life after Gymnastics, and I'd like to make sure she gets there without a Handicap Placard. She'll keep up her conditioning at home and we'll re-evaluate at the end of the month.  It was hard to tell Gay at Gymnastika that we were taking a break, but I feel it's the best thing that Emily can do for herself right now, and the pain is causing her to realize that it's best to take it easy for a couple of weeks until this recent growth spurt is over with. Competition can wait awhile.  It disturbs me to see so many taped ankles, knees and wrists in this sport.