Iowa's Gabby Douglas Heading to London Olympics 2012

Gabby Douglas’s dream is now reality: She is one of five members of the U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team.

Douglas won the top spot on the team Sunday night with a score of 15.3 on her final event of the night, the floor exercise. With that, she won the all-around title, something West Des Moines native Shawn Johnson did four years ago at the Olympic trials.

Douglas has become one of Iowa’s adopted daughters, two years ago leaving her family behind in Virginia to train under Liang Chow at Chow’s Gymnastics in West Des Moines.

Douglas finished Friday’s preliminary round in second place. Following a lacking routine on the uneven bars and a sluggish beam routine, she then excelled on the floor and vault, to finish three-tenths of a point behind leader Jordyn Wieber, The Des Moines Register reported.

Johnson, the West Des Moines native who won four gymnastic medals at the 2008 Beijing Games, was quoted in The Register offering some advice for Douglas:

“Live  it up,” she said. “Take pictures. Take it all in. It’s a once-in-a lifetime opportunity.”