This has been a fantastic week for the U.S. women’s gymnastics team, now culminating in a historic win by Gabby Douglas in the all-around competition.
On Thursday, Douglas, 16, officially became the first African-American to win the women’s all-around gold.
She had high hopes that she would win and become the next female African-American gymnast to win an individual Olympic medal since Domonique Dawes accomplished that feat in 1996. “She was one of my inspirations and role models growing up,” Douglas reportedly said.
In addition, Douglas also became the fourth American women to win the all-around gold medal and completed American’s third consecutive all-around women’s gymnastics medal-win behind Carly Patterson and Nastia Liukin.
Douglas began the competition with a lead receiving a 15.966 on vault. For the remainder of the competition she managed to stay ahead, but not without a fight.
The competition was fierce between Douglas and Russia’s Viktoria Komova, with scores remaining around three-tenths of one another for most of the competition.
Douglas’ flour routine put the finishing touches on her all-around win. Her routine was energy-filled and confident. As if to boost her confidence further, the crowd clapped along with the techno beat of her floor music throughout her routine. She finished her routine with a huge grin and the crowd went wild.
Despite this beautiful finish, the competition was close and did not come without any surprises.
Earlier this week, during the team competition, Jordyn Wieber, the reigning all-around champion was heartbroken to find that she did not qualify for the upcoming all-around competition. This was quite a surprise, but it also proved an opportunity for the other U.S. competitors to prove themselves.
Douglas finished the competition with a score of 62.232, only about three-tenths above Komova’s final score.
The competition was really close overall and it concluded with a tie for Bronze between Russian Aliya Mustafina and American Aly Raisman. In the end Douglas took home Gold, Komova took home Silver and, after execution scores were factored in, Mustafina took home Bronze with Raisman claiming fourth place.
