**Spoiler Alert – If you have not yet watched the finals for the Women’s Gymnastics individual all-around Olympic competition and do NOT wish to the know the results yet, stop reading now, for those who wish to know how the event turned out, keep reading**
Just two days after U.S.A. won gold for the first time in the Women’s Gymnastics team all-around event since 1996, both Gabby Douglas and Aly Raisman go for the gold again in the individual all-around event, a title that Team USA has won in both the 2004 and 2008 games.
Raisman went into this event as the top qualifier from Team USA after she out scored Jordyn Wieber last Sunday but it was Douglas who was favored to be in the running for the gold medal. First up for the girls was the vault, both doing the difficult “Amanar” and both Douglas and Raisman scored big, each getting a 15.9 on their vault.
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Second rotation was the uneven bars, which is where we usually see Gabby Douglas shine and she didn’t disappoint with a near flawless routine earning her a score of 15.733. Bars is where Raisman started having some issues with form breaks and got a good but low score of 14.333. It was that low score on bars that would move Raisman from the silver medal position down to forth. On beam, Raisman had some major balance checks and a near fall, earning her a score of 14.2, however due to a MAJOR fall form team Russia, she was in a good place to try for the bronze medal with her floor routine. Douglas’ beam was solid with only a few balance checks and with her 15.5 score, she held her gold medal position.
The floor exercise routine would seal the deal in the battle between U.S.A. and Russia for gold as Douglas nails all of her tumbling passes and gets a 15.033, Russia’s Viktoria Komova would need to get at least a 15.3 to beat Douglas for gold. Raisman, who is normally solid on floor, was not her usual self but still scored a 15.133 which would tie her with Russia’s Aliya Mustafina. In the event of a tie, the lowest score will be dropped and the total of the top 3 events will be added up. This new total would edge Raisman out of the bronze medal position.
RELATED l Team USA Women’s Gymnastics Qualifying Results
After earning the lead during the first rotation, Gabby Douglas never let it go and becomes the 2012 Olympic Gold Medalist in the women’s individual all-round competition. Douglas joins the likes of the only other three American’s do achieve this: Mary Lou Retton, Carly Patteron, and Nastia Liukin.
This is also the first time U.S.A has won BOTH the team and individual all-around events in a single Olympic games.
The individual event competitions continue on August 5th on NBC and live on NBCOlympics.com
London 2012 Gymnastics Women's Individual All Around
[photos via NBC Olympics]
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