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Via: thetandd.com

LONDON – From the top of the podium, with the final bars of the national anthem still echoing through the gymnastics hall, Gabby Douglas’s smile seemed even brighter.

Even brighter than when she stuck each impossible landing here this week, even brighter than the gold medal hanging from her neck, even brighter than the future of both she and USA Gymnastics after this historic star turn.

It’s the smile that will forever be one of the signature images of these Olympics, the smile that will sell a million boxes of cereal or sneakers, the smile that will beam off countless magazine covers to come.

And it is the smile that will haunt every other competitor she left in a heap behind her – the sweet, wonderful smile of one of the most cold-blooded sporting assassins you’ll ever find.

Gabby Douglas won women’s gymnastics all-around gold on Thursday by delivering another near-flawless four events, all while crushing the confidence and infuriating the will of the rest of the field, most notably the two determined Russians she shared the podium with, Victoria Komova and Aliya Mustafina.

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The Russians were more decorated and more experienced and trained at a higher level for a longer period of their life.

They never really stood a chance.

Douglas – the first U.S. woman ever to win gold in both the team competition and all-around – took the lead from the start and never relinquished it, allowing Komova and Mustafina to make errors, whether small or great, they could never recover from. In the end, she merely waited out the final result, nursing a lead until Komova’s final result on the floor exercise was shown on the scoreboard.

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