Shilese Jones and Gabby Douglas are the yin and yang of the gymnastics world. The former world championship medalist takes a thorough inspiration from the 2012 Olympics all-around champion. But with that, Shilese Jones also counts Gabby Douglas as the barometer that she hopes to reach. Shilese Jones, being the younger of the two, has had her fair share of accolades such as being the noteworthy phenom on the Uneven Bars (2022-2023) holding the distinction of the two-time US National Champion as well, to boot.

Gabby Douglas, on the other hand, has a little more skin in the game with her multifold expertise in all-around and the uneven bars. Jones is anything but a quitter and not one to subvert expectations. Their recent showings at the Core Hydration event was one to write home about, though Douglas had a slip up. 

Jones made sure to match up against the older titan with her own spunk on her apparatuses. After the recently concluded Core Hydration Classic, the 21-year-old gymnast impressed with her performances but also made sure to come in clutch with a savage response directed at Gabby Douglas. This time, it has come through an off-court exchange and a subtle off-handed jab that stirred the percolating pot of controversy. 

After a heartening performance in the Core Hydration Classic yesterday, Shilese had to face a tough question regarding her choice of bottle to drink water from. As per the visuals, it was a less-environment-friendly pet bottle. However, Shilese Jones brought up Gabby Douglas’ reference while answering the question. 

Incidentally, a few days ago, Gabby Douglas took a private jet to reach Hartford to join the Core Hydration Classic after facing a critical weather situation. Taking a dig at that, the Ascend Gymnastics trainee replied, “At least I don’t fly private.” As of now, Gabby Douglas has not commented on this. But it may act as a severe blow, especially after her rather disappointing performance at the Core Hydration Classic 2024. This seemingly innocuous question could even be alluded to rising carbon footprint issues with regard to the environment, but here it seemed like Jones was out to set the record straight and not let media sensationalism and banality get to her.

In the Core Hydration contest, Shilese Jones earned the second position, bowing to Simone Biles only. However, Gabby Douglas slipped to 49th position after backing out from the contest facing two falls in the uneven bars routine. In the same uneven bar routine, Shilese Jones remained the top scorer last night. But some credit for having such success in elite gymnastics should go to Gabby Douglas as well. In fact, Shilese stepped into the elite gymnastics realm with inspiration from Gabby in 2015-16. On the flipside, there are also oodles of love between the two, so this one-off verbal jousting shouldn’t really be taken at face value.

Shilese Jones and Gabby Douglas are soul sisters in every capacity 

Hailing from the Black community, Shilese Jones takes her motivation from two Olympic champions – Simone Biles and Gabby Douglas. While Shilese had featured with the first name in the national gymnastics team for the World Championships last year, with the latter, she had once shared the gymnastics practice session. But how? 

After watching Gabby Douglas win the Olympic all-around medal being the first Black woman gymnast, Shilese Jones had started to think about trying her hand in gymnastics. “I saw the 2012 Olympics and was like, ‘That’s where I want to be. I want to be Gabby Douglas,’” Shilese claimed in one of her media conversations. However, she had to wait for three years to earn the chance to train with Gabby at the Buckeye Gymnastics. The 21-year-old gymnast still remembers that experience when the 3-time Olympic gold medalist acted as her guardian in elite gymnastics. 

Narrating those experiences, Shilese Jones added, “We became close, and I got a different view for the Olympic-style athlete.” Later, the bond continued through thick and thin. Eventually, this year after she failed in the American Classic, Gabby found a word of strength from her former practice mate, Shilese Jones. Calling Gabby Douglas “a champion” Shilese Jones then penned, “I’m beyond proud of you [emoji]”.

Shilese Jones also happens to be a proud partner with behemoth clothing apparel brand Ralph Lauren. She announced this year with an IG post chronicling the same along with the caption –“I am proud to partner with Ralph Lauren, an Official Outfitter of Team USA.” Not one to have her spotlight relegated, Gabby Douglas popped by and showered her love for her compatriot with the caption –“🥹🖤 my shi.” There’s a lot more to them than meets the eye, it seems like. Now with Paris on their peripheries, it remains to be seen where the next flight in the relationship of Gabby and Shilese will take them.