Congratulations to the new Olympic All Around Champion in Women’s Gymnastics – Gabby Douglas! I honestly can not wait to see the coverage of the meet this evening in prime time since I was away from my desk and had to “watch” this epic competition unfold before my eyes on Twitter. (On a side note, the tweets from around the world from those watching the live fee were priceless – I’d venture to say better coverage than the commentators at times.)
When all was said and done, Gabby Douglas was first, Viktoria Komova of Russia took silver, Aliya Mustafina of Russia and Aly Raisman of the US tied for third. Unfortunately for Aly, FIG rules require the tie to be broken using the top 3 event scores for each gymnast. Aliya edged out Aly.
From all that I have heard reported – Gabby and Viktoria both went 4 for 4 – meaning no major mistakes for either of them. Aliya and Aly both had issues on beam, but were solid everywhere else.
As much as I am so happy for Gabby – especially having watched her grow up in the sport since her first State Meet in 2004 – I am really wondering what will happen next. Will she continue to train at Chow’s? Will she return home and train locally (and if so, where considering the drama behind her leaving Excalibur – the club that deserves just as much credit for developing her as Chow does)? Will she continue to train for Rio or will she opt to finish High School and compete in the NCAA?
And what about Aly? Four more years or college? I guess only time will tell, but in the meantime, I am proud of all our athletes, their performances and the hard work it took for them to get there!
Photo: USA Gymnastics via Facebook