[Sesay:] Hello, everyone. American gymnast, Gabby Douglas, is having a rough Olympics. She has plenty of criticism online throughout her time in Rio. First it was failing to put her hand over her heart during the U.S. national anthem. That extended to a lack of support for her teammate. But anyone who was looking any closer would have found plenty of images showing quite the opposite. Like these. Douglas' mother weighed in on the flack her daughter was getting in Rio.
[Natalie Hawkins, Mother Of Gymnast Gabby Douglas:] For her to come out here and fight for her team and then get the onslaught of all of the online criticism and all of the negativity that, you know, people just threw her way was overwhelming. It proved, in the end, to be a little bit too much.
[Sesay:] Joining us now to discuss this is entertainment journalist, Segun Oduolowu. Segun, what do you make of all this? I can't quite understand why she was turned on in this way after the celebration and the adulation of London four years ago.
[Segun Oduolowu, Entertainment Journalist:] Well, it's cruel, it's ugly and it's mean. That's the bottom line. I challenge anyone who is detracting from Gabby Douglas at her performance. What did you do for your country today? This young girl sacrificed her time, her body, and basically for her country to win gold and bring glory to the United States. She comes from a military background that her mom mentioned. Not everybody stands with their hands over their heart when the national anthem is played. They're talking about the faces she made. Women's gymnastics may call themselves a team, but they are individual competitors. What I say and what I believe is she was more disappointed with her own performance. And so her lack of jubilation isn't that she's not cheering for her teammates, which other pictures clearly show, it's frustration on how she did not perform as well as she may have wanted to. She's 20 years old. She's not going to be able to do the same thing she used to do at 16 when she was the darling of London. Liz Clark, of "The Washington Post," wrote an interesting article, how women, especially women in sports are picked apart for the wrong reasons. We talk about how they look, their hair, are they feminine enough. This beautiful girl has been sacrificing for the last eight years of her country. For people on social media to attack her because they don't like the still shots or how she was at the podium, did they say the same thing about Michael Phelps when the American anthem was played when he was laughing and giggling when he won for swimming? So it's cruel and mean, and it's demeaning to women.
[Sesay:] I'm trying to make sense of it, whether it's this thing where, with the elevation of Simone Biles, there's this counter- effect they're pushing Gabby down.
[Oduolowu:] It's like Highlander. There can be only one.
[Sesay:] Yeah. I just don't understand.
[Oduolowu:] Well, I think it's so easy for us to default to the racial element, like I mentioned with Michael Phelps, white swimmer laughs during the national anthem, no one says anything, black gymnast doesn't smile or doesn't have her hand over the heart, national outcry. But, you know, there's this line in the "Dark Knight" where Batman says I love that. I love Batman.
[Sesay:] Carry on.
[Oduolowu:] Where he says, "Either you die as a hero, or you live long enough to see yourself as the villain." If she finished at London, she's Gabby Douglas on a box of Wheaties, and Simone Biles comes in and carries the torch. By coming back, she gave them ammunition. They're making her the villain. Now they're making her the villain, and it's unfair.
[Sesay:] She did apologize when speaking to reporters on Sunday. She said, "I've been through a lot, a lot. Sometimes I sit back and say, what did I do to disrespect people? What have I done to disrespect the USA? I don't get that part. I'm sorry." The very fact that she had to apologize.
[Oduolowu:] It's mind blowing. She's apologizing to trolls on Twitter, trolls. People who have no better thing to do in their time than to chastise a 20-year-old woman for what they imagined she was thinking when they played the national anthem. Again, judging from your couch when you've never done a back hand spring, a forward roll, a cart wheel or anything like this, to on judge this young lady, who as I said, you sacrifice your body in women's gymnastics. And it only comes around every four years. Imagine the pressure that you have one, one bad moment and it's done for the entire Olympic career. That may be it. The amount of pressure that these young ladies are under, the way they are scrutinized. For people to say that on Twitter, it's ridiculous. My heart goes out to Gabby because I don't think she did anything wrong. She's a competitor. If this was a man who did this, they would be like, oh, he's in the zone. He's thinking about the next competition. But for Gabby Douglas, she's not as sparkly as they would want her to be.
[Sesay:] No, indeed. I would say she has tweeted in the last couple of hours and seems in better spirits and has thanked everything from the positive comments she has received. And the last hour, she put this out, "Thank you so much for all the love. My heart is full."
[Oduolowu:] Who has been a supporter of her.
[Sesay:] She says, "I love you, guys."
[Oduolowu:] She should.
[Sesay:] She should.
[Oduolowu:] This is Olympic dreams. Do not take away from a young girl who has sacrificed, like I said, eight years from London. Be better than that, people. Treat our athletes better. Be better.
[Sesay:] OK.
[Oduolowu:] Yeah, right. Come and see me on Twitter.
[Sesay:] Gets like that sometimes. All right. Thank you for that, Segun. It meant a lot to us. Now, the world's fastest man is on top of the world at the Rio games. As Jeanne Moos shows us, he's all smiles.
[Jeanne Moos, Cnn National Correspondent:] When you're running a hundred meters in under 10 seconds, who has time to smile? Cheese. Usain Bolt, that's who. His smiling photo had tweets flying. "Bolt stops, takes a selfie, then continues to run the race." As for his rivals, "Homi is fighting for his life and Bolt is posing for photos mid race." "Smiling like a roadrunner, beep, beep." At least Bolt didn't stick out his tongue. Like the roadrunner. "It is taking me longer to type this tweet than it took bolt to run and win his event." Soon the Olympic semifinal race was transformed into the presidential race. [on camera]: The Bolt smile may be an Internet meme, it's not yet a tattoo, as far as we know. [voice-over]: Michael Phelps' steely stare was the first big meme to come out of the Olympics. And now it's been tattooed on the owner of a tattoo shop. She tattooed it her boss's right calf, working from a photo taped to his leg. [on camera]: Did you have to shave his leg?
[Unidentified Female:] Yeah, I did. I cut him by accident.
[Moos:] Somewhere in that, tattoo, we'll see a little cut?
[Unidentified Female:] It's right by his chin.
[Moos:] The tattoo got the blessing of Michael Phelps.
[Michael Phelps, U.s. Olympic Swimmer:] That's awesome. That is so cool.
[Moos:] From the glare to the smile, the two Olympic names wouldn't be more opposite. But opposites attract eyeballs on the Internet. Take it away, Frank. Jeanne Moos, CNN, New York.
[Sesay:] Great piece there. You're watching CNN NEWSROOM, live from Los Angeles. I'm Isha Sesay. The news continues next with Rosemary Church.