Gabby Douglas

Have you ever wondered what it would be like to be a champion? Well, Gabby Douglas was a champion that went for the gold and scored. She is the first African-American to win the individual All Around Gold. Also her team, the U.S.A women's, won the gold. Gabby Douglas is an amazing person. She is only seventeen years old and won the gold medal in the Women's Gymnastics in the London 2012 Olympics.

Childhood: Gabby Douglas was still a great gymnast as a little girl. Gabby was born on December 31, 1995 in Virginia Beach, Virginia. Gabby is home-schooled because she trains so much. She has a mom and a sister. Gabby's sister's name is Arielle and she did gymnastics. When Gabby saw Arielle do cartwheels and splits on the floor at home, Gabby wanted to be able to do that too. Arielle taught Gabby to do these basic skills and soon Gabby perfected them. At age six, Gabby taught herself to do a one handed cartwheel. She was getting so good at skills that Arielle told her mother, Natalie Hawkins, to put Gabby into gymnastics. After a couple years when Gabby was twelve, she asked her mother if she could move away from home to Iowa to train with an elite trainer named Liang Chow. Her mom of course said no way. After a while, Gabby's mom was convinced so Gabby moved to Iowa. While she trained with Liang Chow she stayed with the Parton's.

Obstacles and Major Accomplishments in Life: When Gabby was twelve and she stated what she wanted to do, it led Gabby to some major obstacles and accomplishments. One of Gabby's first obstacles is when she had to move to Iowa and live with a new family so she could train with the elite coach Liang Chow. Also, Gabby did want to quit gymnastics and go back to her real home, but again her mom said no way. So Gabby stayed where she belonged to fight for her dreams. One of her accomplishments was that Gabby became the Individual All Around Gold in the Olympics. That's a big deal! Also her team, the U.S.A Women's Gymnastics won the gold for the team! These accomplishments came out of the obstacles because she moved Iowa to get better and she did.

Heroic Traits: Gabby has many traits that show she is a hero. Like one trait is focused. Gabby is focused because she is focused on fighting for her dreams and working hard to make herself perfect and the best. Gabby's second trait is intrepidity. Intrepidity means bold or fearless. She has intrepidity because she is not afraid to do tricks that might get her hurt and she is fearless to go out there and show judges and people that she is a great gymnast and a great person because she might mess up and get a bad score but she is without fear. The last trait is conviction. Gabby has conviction that she has a strong belief in that she can do what she believes in and she can try hard and harder until there is perfection.

Personal Connections: Those traits make Gabby and I kind of similar. One similarity that Gabby and I are alike is we both do gymnastics. Another similarity is that we both work hard and try our best. A difference is that she is a professional gymnast and I'm not. Also she was in the Olympics and is very famous, and of course I'm not famous. Now here is why I chose Gabby Douglas as my hero. She inspires me to work hard in gymnastics and she won the gold and won a first, (First African-American to win Individual All Around Gold) which tells me that I can be good at what I love and try hard to achieve.