Gabby Douglas Wins Gold in Individual All-Around

Congratulations to 16-year-old gymnast Gabby Douglas from Virginia Beach who made history on Thursday becoming the first African-American to win the women’s all-around title, the most coveted title in her sport.

She’s the forth American woman and third consecutive American to win the all-around, following Carly Patterson in ’04 and Nastia Liukin in ’08, but this remarkably the first time a US gymnast has ever won a Team and Individual Gold.

Gabby’s the first African American female gymnast to win an individual Olympics medal since Dominique Dawes in ’96, whom she happened to idolize growing up.

Russia’s Victoria Komova took the bronze and her teammate Aliya Mustafina won bronze.

American Aly Raisman finished fourth, and of course Jordyn Wiever, the reigning world champion didn’t qualify since only two representatives from each country are allowed to advance to the finals.

But this day was all about Gabby Douglas. She lead the competition from start to finish with a final score of 62.232 topping Komova who scored a 61.973. Gabby Douglas, aka “The Flying Squirrel” had the highest scores of the 24-gymnast field on the vault and the beam. Cheers of “Go Gabby!” filled the gym in North Greenich during her floor exercise.

“I hope that I inspire people. I want to inspire people,” Gabby said. Douglas, who competes in a predominately white sport added, “My mother said you can inspire a nation.”

This was no doubt a great win for the Americans, and obviously a day Gabby Douglas will never forget.

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Aaron Kirn is the Director of Video of Rant Sports

Follow him on Twitter @AaronKirn