London 2012: Gabrielle Douglas Women’s All Around Champion

What a fantastic competition, as well as watching her and team mates become the 2012 Olympic Team Champions, I also had the pleasure of watching Gabrielle Douglas of the USA become the 2012 Olympic All Around Champion in person at the North Greenwich Arena. It was a nail biting finish, Viktoria Komova performed the floor routine of her life. I have often found Komova to just go out and “do” her routine but last night I felt that she “performed” it and with serious passion. I have watched Komova’s routine three times this week, at qualification, team finals and AA finals, this was by far her best performance. I do however feel that the crying needs to stop – yes she wanted gold but she got silver. Every girl in the competition wanted the gold medal. A very touching moment was when Gabby Douglas was photographed comforting Komova right after she had been declared the 2012 All Around Champion. Aly Raisman tied for third with Mustafina but unfortunately due to tie breaking rules, she was not awarded a bronze medal.

Aliya Mustafina pulled out an impressive performance last night, she has come a long way since tearing her ACL at the 2011 European Championships, she is beautiful to watch. Rebecca Tunney of GBR was impressive, placing 13th in her first Olympic Games in the AA Final. Her team mate Hannah Whelan, was not so fortunate, placing last due to a score of 0.00 on vault. Sandra Izbasa of Romania really impressed me, placing fifth, a little unexpected as team mate Larisa Iordache was expected to be in contention for a medal.

Many are arguing about over scoring, that Komova was over scored, that Gabby was over scored. I’m taking it as it is, I wasn’t judging, I’m not qualified at that level to decide but my preference was always with Gabby. She has it all, consistency, a great attitude, a fantastic sports – woman attitude and fierce talent.

Since the IOC video police are having any recorded footage from their broadcast removed, I recorded some routines for fans. I tried to get as many different gymnasts as I could, to cater for everyone. In any floor video you will see beam in the background so for alot of the routines you actually have two. Check them out here.