Gabby Douglas' electric gold medal performance in London | Olympic Games Week | NBC Sports

this is one of the most anticipated days in the Olympics when one woman stands above everyone else enter Gabby Douglas enter Ali Raisman what they are about to try and do is following the steps only three American women have ever known and as the draw would have it they will start where they should be fairly comfortable on the vault one vote everything you see tonight counts she's been great on this throughout the Olympics but has struggled in the past foreign start it wasn't perfect she'll take that though what she does so well is she's very clean in the air but there was an error on the landing she takes a hop and remember if you're gonna hop you want to go straight forward because there's a Zone where they're going to land and you want to be exactly straight to the horse you don't want to have any lateral movement beautiful up until this point Tim gorgeous you see she lands both feet to the side of that middle line and then that left foot it definitely on the boundary but these are just small deductions sometimes she twists a little bit early and when she does that she catapults her body a little bit to the side you see her trying like a wide receiver instead of get those toes in keep them in well she did better than qualifying 15.966 and that little green arrow tells you that's in the grit Zone [Applause] it's been one of the areas that she has had difficulty with staying focused and staying in the zone and what she needs to do right here look for the handstands [Music] now this release combination is even more difficult she'll combine two together right to the low beautiful [Music] he's got to put a double layout to her feet keeping it interesting [Applause] thank you can you do it when you have to do it as she did she did hop on the landing not going to get the score that we saw from either Victoria comovara mustafina but this is beautiful right here watch the height that she gets she flies in the air on this beautiful skill and then it's so hard to fly this hard high and then make the transition into another release watch she'll do a back flip from the high bar down to the low bar in slow-mo it makes it look kind of easy doesn't it Al you could just rip one of those off well hopefully the judges took notice of the execution and just how high she was on those two release skills because that's very very difficult to write here with just her dismount beautiful stretched laid out position double layer but that hop that's a small deduction she's going to be right in there though I I would say that she will be trailing comova at this point not Mustafa she certainly shouldn't be but there's a lot more gymnastics still to come Gabby Douglas 15.733 this is going to be a matter of tense and as Gabby Douglas has stayed in front of the Russians she is heading to balance beam like everyone else in this lead group and the balance beam can really be a place where things get decided here goes Gabby Douglas with our teammate Ali Raisman coming up is she capable absolutely the only critical thing is stay in control stay inside yourself don't feel any external stimuli just do what you can do and she's in fantastic shape no right here don't we Tim right here this element that was great for her and she follows up with another super hard skill it's a full twist [Applause] foreign Gabby has told us I can't forget the simple stuff I've got to keep my mind focused she's through most of her challenging things but [Music] still gotta keep that Focus till the end [Music] [Applause] so there's just one piece of gymnastics left it's your Dismount it will take the entire length of the balance beam it starts right here this is it [Music] and we have got a real battle that battle of course is Gabby Douglas and Victoria comova but that was spectacular under the absolute glare of Olympic pressure she needs a 15.174 to stay in the lead not no problem whatsoever this was the skill that has given Gabby such grief over the last few months but not here I tell you her mental preparations here in London has been fantastic she has found a way to defeat this balance beam she has owned it you know Tim it's almost as if on the uneven bars she absorbed Russia's biggest punch yeah exactly and she maybe got pushed back a little bit she certainly didn't go down and she came back with her own left jab well here we go what's the number that's going to be enough if it's not they're wrong and it's a 15.5 Gabby Douglas is going to stay in front and it's going to come down to the floor exercise it's not just stay in front she just distanced herself even further that's a huge score foreign [Applause] they say sometime a crowded room can be the most lonely place in the world [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Applause] [Applause] thank you so much [Music] [Applause] foreign thank you Tim Hawk what you say Might Be Lonely at the Top exactly you know what a performance in her coach Lang Chow was in this exact same position four years ago had to sell settle for silver with Sean Johnson but I don't know it's looking pretty golden for this girl right here that's going to be very very hard to beat and the best part about that performance was that smile I haven't seen that in a while from Gabby she felt it [Applause] um [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] [Music] [Applause] my sister Arielle is right there too she's the one that convinced Gabby don't quit but you know it's like a game of hundreds and thousands of a point and on her second pass she was oh so close to stepping out of bounds and if you do that we're not talking hundreds or thousands it's a full tenth of a point or three tens it but both legs go out but look at that right there so close we scanned the arena no white flag was raised so no deduction Kathy Douglas gets a 15.033 it's easily going to keep her in the lead and it's really putting the squeeze on chromova once again all eyes everyone in the arena mine included staring up and it's a gabby gold ie Wonder [Applause] [Music] well Gabby told us many times she dreamed of this moment all her life is it everything you thought it would be it is everything I thought it'd be being the Olympic champion is definitely amazing feeling and I give all the glory to God and it's kind of a win-win situation the glory goes up to him and the blessings fall down on me and in that final rotation this was an epic battle did you think that that was a gold medal performance on the floor from you yes I actually do a perfect and clean routine and I did and I knew at that moment that I had I had this and what about you had to watch just like everyone else did it came right down to come over the very very last routine you had to watch with everybody else to see what her score was to see if you won Gold describe those moments if you can it was definitely nerve-wracking I mean oh am I gonna be first am I gonna be second what is going on and um it was just nerve-wracking this has been a road to two Olympic Golds right now maybe more to come a lot of sacrifices along the way for you and your family and your extended family what does this mean to all of you it means so much all the hard work and dedication and effort put in the gym and hard days and hard days are the best because that's what Champions are made so if you push through the hard days and you can get through anything congratulations thank you

Channel: NBC Sports

Views: 5,349,935

Keywords: Olympic Sports, Olympics, gabby douglas, tokyo 2020, gymnastics, gabby douglas 2012 olympics, gabby douglas gold medal, 2012 gymnastics, gabby douglas 2012, gabby douglas vault, gabby douglas bars, gabby douglas beam, gabby douglas simone biles, gabby douglas aly raisman, gabby douglas all around, gabby douglas 2020

Id: UXELhJCV1Ek

Length: 13min 31sec (811 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 16 2020