Olympic gymnasts say goodbye on last stop of tour
- Fierce Five will be part of Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade
- Maroney set to return to California to focus on acting
- Ross will go back to high school, training
BROOKLYN, N.Y. – On Sunday afternoon, before the final stop of their 40-city tour came to a close at the Barclays Center, U.S. gymnast McKayla Maroney couldn't imagine saying goodbye.
"I just was crying. This is so sad, so horrible," she said. "I'm going to miss everybody a lot."
You, too, Gabby Douglas? Is it going to be hard to say goodbye after spending almost every day of the last two months with your teammates? "I'm kind of sick of all these people," Douglas said.
"Kidding!" she said as she broke out into a huge smile. "It's a bittersweet moment for all of us. … It's going to be sad but everyone is excited to go home."
Even though the Fierce Five will be together the next few days in New York – shopping! – and will be a part of the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade, all will head home for the holidays, but not for long.
Douglas, Aly Raisman and Jordyn Wieber will be part of another tour – Teen Choice Live, which combines gymnastics, cheerleading and music. Maroney will return to California to jump start her acting career – she has a guest spot on the CW TV show "Hart of Dixie" this week and was asked to do another episode. Kyla Ross has high school and full-time training waiting for her in California.
Douglas said she will return to training sometime in the spring – she hopes to compete again in the 2016 Olympics -- but it's all a bit fuzzy. Her autobiography, "Grace, Gold and Glory: My Leap of Faith" will be released in a few weeks and there will be a book tour.
And the group is still buzzing from its visit to the White House to meet President Obama last week. Even though Douglas has reached a rarefied level of Olympic celebrity, she still remains very Gabby, very 16 about it all.
Her account of the White House visit: "It was such an amazing experience, we visited the bakery shop, the flower shop and they even gave us a cookie and I found a quarter on the floor in the White House. Oh a quarter, I have to Instagram it. Oh, and the president was so cool. .. He was like 'Guys, chill out.' He was so funny, so down to earth. … He's a cool guy and we got to take our picture in his official President chair. It was cool. He gave us some cool souvenirs. And he gave us presidential M&Ms! And they were red, white and blue."
So what do you do with presidential M&Ms? "I ate them. Yeah, they were extra special."
"And he did the not-impressed face with McKayla."
When the President asks you for a picture, you know you must be famous. "I thought, 'Wow, did he just ask me if we can do the not impressed face?" Maroney said. "Like, wow."
In the shot, which was released by the White House, President Obama does an over-the-top version of Maroney's expression which went viral after she missed the gold in her favored vault event. "He said he does the not-impressed face at least once a day," she said.