Gabby Douglas, who has lived and trained in West Des Moines for the past two years, made history today as the first African-American Olympic all-around champion in gymnastics.

Christine Brennan of USAToday noted Douglas' achievement as she won a gold medal in the all-around event at the London Olympics, her second gold of the games.

Already a gold medal winner as part of the U.S. women's gymnastics team, Douglas competed Thursday morning in the individual all-around finals at the London 2012 Olympics. Douglas won the all-around gold medal over Russia's Victoria Komova.

NBC, which has exclusive U.S. broadcasting rights for the summer Olympics, will air highlights tonight, beginning at 7 p.m. The competition began at 10:30 a.m., CDST (4:30 p.m. in London) today.

Douglas, 16, moved to West Des Moines to train with Liang Chow, who coached West Des Moines native Shawn Johnson to gold four years ago at Chow’s Gymnastics and Dance Institute. 
 

Read the full Thursday schedule for the U.S. Women’s Olympics Gymnastics Team.

Gymnastics watchers said Douglas faced a tough challenge to an all-around medal from teammate Aly Raisman and the Russian gymnasts, the Des Moines Register’s Mark Emmert reported.

Here are some of Emmert's Tweets from the venue as Douglas moved through the appartus:

• Vault: Her vault is terrific. Only the slightest hop on landing, leans to stay inbounds. Scores 15.966.
• Bars: Big score for Gabby: 15.733. Got the routine she needed to maintain frontrunner status heading to beam. Leads Komova by .267.
• Bars: It's hard to see where the Russians will make up ground on these final rotations, barring a disaster. Gabby needs to keep eye on Aly, though
• Beam: Gabby lands it well, and gets a 15.500. She keeps getting her highest scores of the week. Raisman is up, but Gabby closing in on gold.
• Beam: Raisman a little wobbly on beam and earns a 14.200 to fall to fifth place. Gabby takes 0.326-point lead over Komova to floor.
• Floor: Beam done, only floor to go. Douglas has .326 lead over Komova. Mustafina 2.233 behind, so it's looking like gold or silver for Douglas.
• Floor: She nearly stepped out on her second pass again, gathered herself well. Scores is 15.033. Give her the gold!
• Aftermath: Komova comes close with 15.100, but Gabby is golden! Russians silver and bronze. It's a red, white and blue wave in this arena