Christian Olympian Gabrielle Douglas Pens Second Memoir
Olympic gold medalist Gabrielle Douglas, not yet 18, will publish her second memoir next month, publisher Zondervan said on Tuesday.
Douglas, 17, a gold medal winner at the 2012 Summer Olympics in both team and individual all-around gymnastics competition, will publish “Raising the Bar,” a follow-up to her 2012 best-selling memoir “Grace, Gold & Glory: My Leap of Faith,” on April 30, the publishers said in a release.
Zondervan is a division of HarperCollins that specializes in Christian-oriented books.
The book will offer a behind-the-scenes look into Douglas’ life, including color photos, personal stories and details on the athlete’s present-day life–from walking red carpets and appearing on TV shows such as “The Vampire Diaries” while also making time for friends, family and training.
“‘Raising the Bar’ explores what it’s like to be an everyday teen with a not-so-everyday life,” Zondervan said.
Douglas, who began training at age 6 and became the Virginia State Champion just two years later, made history last year when she became the first U.S. gymnast to take home a team and an individual gold medal in the same games. She was first African-American to win the individual gold.
Since the 2012 London Olympics thrust the young gymnast into the public eye, Douglas has appeared at the Democratic National Convention, the MTV Video Awards, on the cover of Time magazine and on special edition boxes of corn flake cereal, along with her gold medal.
Reporting by Chris Michaud; Editing by Piya Sinha-Roy and Richard Chang
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