Could Gabby Do It?

 

Gabby was the third american in three consecutive Olympic cycles to win Olympic gold in the all around- Also the first black american gymnast to win an gymnasts ultimate dream medal! Now she's back to possibly do it again? 

In the past there has only been two other gymnasts who have won back to back in the Olympic all around:

1952- 1956, Larisa Latynina 

1960-1964, Věra Čáslavská 

But as you can see this was way back when and the demands of the sport have changed dramatically. 

If we look at Gabby's biggest competition for the All-around it's without a doubt Simone Biles and in terms of difficulty Gabby has a lot of catching up to do... so do the rest of the gymnasts in the world for that matter;

On vault Simone has the Amanar whilst Gabby is still competing the double, however Gabby is competing this vault amazingly well this year with her average score being 15.19. I wouldn't be surprised if she got the Amanar for next year. 

Gabby has the difficulty over Simone on bars though with a 16.4 at the recent P&Gs, 0.3 higher than Biles. Which in fact was her difficulty at the Olympics (maybe 0.1 less). This is the only event where Douglas has the advantage.

The gap between the two gymnasts significantly increases on beam and floor... but then again who can compete with Simone's difficulty on these events? Gabby's highest difficulty score on beam this year was 16.4 where as Simone has a 16.9. The biggest gap is on floor where there is 0.8 between them with Douglas having a 16 compared to Simone's 16.8.

But its all Ok comparing the difficulty but in the end it all comes down to the execution. Anything can happen between now and the Olympics next year... for all we know Simone may not qualify for the All-around like Wieber... but something thing disastrous would have to happen for someone from the US to boot Simone out of the final.

Unless if Gabby rockets up her Difficulty and execution it's looking unlikely she can overtake Simone in the All-Around but who's to say she can't get silver or bronze which would also be a big achievement for meddling at 2 Olympics in the row. Just looking at the US gymnasts though Gabby does have her work cut out for these medals; for instance her fellow 2012 Olympic team mate Aly Raisman has just come third in the P&Gs and the newbies on the block- Maggie, Bailie, Laurie and Jasmine are shaping up to be competitive all arounders. 

In saying this who would of thought Gabby was in the running for the Olympic gold in 2011? A lot can happen in a year and i think Gabby has a lot more up her sleeve..  

What do you think?