Gymnast, Gabby Douglas, poses for a portrait during the 2012 Team USA Media Summit on May 14, 2012 in Dallas, Texas. (Photo by Nick Laham/Getty Images)

Gabby Douglas’ popularity in U.S. gymnastics soared after her performance at the American Cup in March. Douglas is continuing to turn heads and excite fans as the 2012 London Olympics approach. Douglas recently participated in the U.S. Classic in West Des Moines, Iowa and received high praise from her coaches.  The Des Moines Register reports:

Douglas is trying to overcome the notion that she is just an uneven bars wizard who lacks the mental toughness to consistently perform in her sport’s three other disciplines. And in that regard, her coach, Liang Chow, thought she delivered Saturday.

“The mistake of course we need to be working on, and technical problems or the precision problems, before she gets up there. But also we need to give her a lot of good credit for fighting it through,” Chow said.

“She did not give up and she did not jump off easily, and that’s a good statement that she’s fighting for the perfection.”

Douglas will look to build on Saturday’s effort at the national championships in St. Louis in two weeks. There, she will also compete on the vault, which she skipped here, Chow said.

Douglas brought the crowd of 5,800 to its feet early Saturday, completing the loftiest uneven bars routine with the top score. Her electrifying combination of altitude and precision resulted in a score of 15.7 — 6.6 for difficulty and 9.1 for execution.

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