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Six years ago today in the 2012 Summer Olympics in London, England, the United States Olympic women's gymnastics team became the first United States Olympic women's gymnastics team to win a gold medal since the "Magnificent Seven" won the gold medal in the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia, United States.
The 2012 team, dubbed the "Fierce Five", consisted of Gabby Douglas, McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber. The team earned their position to compete for the gold medal on Tuesday, July 31 after qualifying in first place two days prior on Sunday, July 29.
The top eight teams qualified for the final. Russia, China, Romania, Great Britain, Japan, Italy and Canada took second, third, fourth, fifth, sixth, seventh and eighth place, respectively, in qualifications.
The United States team secured the top spot in qualifications by just 1.434 points over the Russian team. The five American gymnasts racked up 181.863 points compared to the 180.429 points racked up by the five Russian gymnasts.
But on Tuesday, July 31, none of the other seven countries' teams had anything for the Fierce Five.
Three women from each team competed in each of the four events: vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise. The three gymnasts who competed for the United States in the vault, balance beam and floor exercise secured the top scores among all eight teams, while the three gymnasts who competed for the team in the uneven barns secured the third highest score among the eight teams.
On the vault, Maroney, Douglas and Wieber scored 16.233, 15.966 and 15.933, respectively, to score 48.132 points for the team, which topped second place Russia's score (46.366) by 1.766 points.
Maroney's score on the vault was the highest score of any gymnast in any event throughout the entire final, and for good reason. Simply put, it was the greatest vault ever.
Meanwhile, Douglas's vault score and Wieber's vault score were the second and third highest scores, respectively, of any gymnast in any event throughout the entire final behind only the vault score of Maroney, as the United States flat-out dominated on the vault.
On the uneven bars, Douglas, Ross and Wieber scored 15.200, 14.933 and 14.666, respectively, to score 44.799 points for the team, which ranked third among all teams and was 1.600 points behind first place China's score, which was 46.399. Russia finished in second with 46.166 points just 0.233 points behind China.
On the balance beam, Douglas, Ross and Raisman scored 15.233, 15.133 and 14.933, respectively, to score 45.299 points for the team, which topped second place Romania's score by just 0.050 points.
Finally, in the floor exercise, Raisman, Douglas and Wieber scored 15.300, 15.066 and 15.000, respectively, to score 45.366 points for the team, which topped second place Romania's score by 0.666 points.
The Fierce Five ended up winning the competition and thus the gold medal. They won the competition by a comfortable margin over second place Russia. The United States team racked up 183.596 points, which was well above their qualifying score, while the Russian team finished 5.066 points behind with 178.530 points to earn the silver medal.
The Romanian team earned the bronze medal after finishing 7.182 points behind the Fierce Five with 176.414 points.
