Gabrielle Christina Victoria Douglas, or Gabby Douglas, made American and black history at the 2012 Summer Olympics where she was the first African-American woman to ever win gold for the individual all-around competition, as well as the first ever American to win gold in both the individual all-around and team competition at the same Olympics.
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Douglas was born on New Year’s Eve in 1995 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. She began training in gymnastics at age 6. She won her first medal, the Level 4 all-around gymnastics title, at age 8 at the 2004 Virginia State Championships.
She made her national debut at the 2010 Nastia Liukin Supergirl Cup in Worcester, Massachusetts where she placed 4th all-around.
Douglas would go on to dominate multiple national and international competitions, such as the 2010 Covergirl Classics in Chicago, the 2010 Junior National Championships, the 2010 Pan American Championships in Guadalajara, Mexico, and the 2011 World Championships in Tokyo, Japan.
For her unrivaled skills on the uneven bars, Marta Karolyi, the USA Gymnastics National Team Coordinator, nicknamed Douglas “the flying squirrel.”
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Since then, she has become an icon for American pride and national solidarity, appearing at the 2012 National Democratic Convention, as well as being a part of President Obama’s campaign rallies.
