Gabby Douglas; Olympic Women's Gymnastics Star Shooting for Gold
Gabby Douglas,16, came in third among Team USA in the women's qualifications on July 29, but this athlete, nicknamed "The Flying Squirrel," is going to battle her hardest in the women's team finals on July 31, airing at 11:30 Eastern time.
She started training at the age of six and the Bleacher Report is confident the athlete will have an upper hand with her "calm, even demeanor...an asset that escapes many of the young girls competing on the big stage, Gabby rarely seems flustered in the spotlight. "
Though she competes with Team USA, nicknamed the "Fab Five" in many of the Olympic Games, the women's individual all-around on Aug. 2 will be Douglas' time to shine alone from her teammates and give her the chance to win an individual Olympic gold.
The 16-year-old also has a lot to show for her sport. She was a gold medalist at the 2011 World Championships with her team in Tokyo and came in first for the uneven beam at the 2012 Visa Championships and the Secret U.S. Classic, according to the official website of the USA Gymnastics.
High hopes are for contender and USA teammate McKayla Maroney to take the gold in the vault area of the competition. However, Douglas matched Maroney's qualifying - best score of 15.900 and so Doulgas is to be watched for as well.
Her soaring ability on the uneven bars, which many may argue is her biggest strength, gave her the nickname of "Flying Squirrel," one that the athlete is proud of.
"I like to become the Flying Squirrel," Douglas said, according to USA Today. "I like squirrels. They're so adventurous.
The paper also reported that if Douglas wins a medal in any individual gymnastic event, she would become the second African-American woman gymnast to do so in the history of the Olympics. Furthermore, winning the Olympic all-around title would make her the first athlete of African descent to do so.
The athlete has also had pretty good training to get her this far and help her move forward. She moved to Iowa to train with Liang Chow, coach of 2008 Olympian Shawn Johnson. She even trained alongside the Olympic silver medal-winner until Johnson's retirement in June 2012.
Training with a past Olympic winner could only have helped Douglas prepare for this monumental step in her career of competing in the 2012 Olympics and along with her women's USA gymnastics team, she is on route to win the first team Olympic gold medal for USA since the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia - where the U.S. women's gymnastics team won its first- ever team gold, according to the Examiner.
