Woman of Power: Olympic Champion and Super Bowl Correspondent Gabby Douglas to Star in Film

On the Saturday before the Super Bowl, Lifetime will premiere the “The Gabby Douglas Story.” It’s the back story about how Ms. Douglas, the gold medal-winning gymnast, came to be a champion and worldwide phenom.

And she’s staying plenty busy in the meantime.

Ms. Douglas, 18, has been in New York City this week working as a Super Bowl XLVIII correspondent for Inside Edition. Insiders say she was spotted enjoying an intimate dinner with family at STK Downtown. Said one insider, “The Olympic Gymnast was reported as very well-mannered and sweet, spending most of the night deep in conversation with her mom. Dressed casually in a bright red blazer and hair blown out in curls, Douglas enjoyed a delicious small Filet for dinner after sharing the infamous Lil Burgers with her family.”

Ms. Douglas rose to stardom during the 2012 Summer Olympics, becoming the first African American gymnast to win two gold medals in Olympic competition.

Wrote the Charlotte Observer, which was given an advance copy of the film, “The movie shows young Gabby — full of energy and precocious talent — studying Olympian Shawn Johnson and deciding that she should work with Johnson’s coach, Liang Chow (played by Brian Tee). It shows her threaten to quit when she grows weary of training in Iowa while her family is in Virginia. It shows some mild conflict with other gymnasts in her early years, though not the degree of racism and bullying Douglas would later describe.”

In the film, a young Ms. Douglas is played by the actors Sydney Mikayla and Imani Hakim.