12 Great Olympic Nicknames
Nickname: “Flying Squirrel”
Sport: Gymnastics
Country: USA
A multiple-medalist at national and international competitions — including gold on the uneven bars at the U.S. Gymnastics National Championships in June 2012 — 16-year-old Gabrielle Douglas is celebrated for her eye-popping athletic skills. But it’s Douglas’s winning personality, and not merely her tumbling talent, that has won over so many fans. Very few people, at any time of life or in any field of endeavor, find a way to balance a winning self-confidence with an obviously genuine and thoughtful modesty. This teenager from Virginia is one of those few. Her nickname, meanwhile — bestowed on her by the U.S. national team coordinator, Márta Károlyi, after seeing Gabby working (and soaring) on the uneven parallel bars — neatly captures her high-energy persona.
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