Douglas Takes Gold in Women's All-Around

A couple days ago, the US women's gymnastics team won gold for the first time in the event since 1996. On that team was Gabby Douglas, a 16 year old African American who was standing on top of the world with 4 others from her country. Last night she stood alone at the top.

The Women's All Around in Gymnastics was last night in London which is supposedly Gymnastic's biggest prize. It had been won by an American the last two times and Gabby sought to be the third. She went through the Vault, the Uneven Bars, the Beam, and then lastly was the Floor. After a fine performance, Gabby waited for the others to go to see if she would take the gold. All that remained was Victoria Komova of Russia. After what looked like a great Floor Performace, the whole stadium waited for her score to see who to crown. Both her and Gabby looked on to see that Komova had just come up short. Though her score was better than Gabby's on the floor, she came up short overall with a 61.973 while Gabby got a 62.232 overall. Gabby Douglas, known as "The Flying Squirrel," flies away with gold in the Women's All-Around.

First, congratulations to Gabby Douglas on winning the Gold. It's truly a dream come true for her and any gymnast. She actually tweeted about it writing "WOW such an AMAZING experience! Thank you all for your support, love and prayers love you all!!! #oncloud9 <3." While I am happy that her dream came true, I couldn't help but feel sorrow for Komova. Gymnastics is one of those sports where you don't have a very long time in your prime and to simply get into the Olympics is a combination of skills and age. You train and work so hard for the biggest moment in your life (at a young age, mind you) I can't help but feel sorry for anyone when they fall just short of getting gold. It's just one of the toughest things to imagine.

Then from a different perspective, someone has to always lose and it wasn't Gabby. Way to go on the win. Smile for the Wheaties Box.