With an eye toward Paris, Gabby Douglas announces her comeback to competitive gymnastics

With an eye toward Paris, Gabby Douglas announces her comeback to competitive gymnastics

With an eye toward Paris, Gabby Douglas announces her comeback to competitive gymnastics

The three-time Olympic gold medallist and 2012 Olympic all-around champion is to participate this summer for the Paris Olympic squad.

Gabby Douglas, who took first place in London in 2012 and became the first Black gymnast to win an Olympic all-around gold medal, is prepared for another try.

Douglas said, "I'm still competitive at heart," during a Tuesday night interview on "Hailey Jackson Now". "I had the feeling that I missed participating after watching the 2022 championships. I realized I was at the gym and thought, "Well, maybe I can do this again."

On February 24, she will compete again for the first time in eight years in the Winter Cup, the first elite gymnastics competition of the year, in Louisville, Kentucky. This tournament will be their first since the Rio Olympics in 2016.

"In contrast to 2016, I wasn't interested in finishing the game. She said, "I wanted to step back and focus on my mental health. "I like pushing myself and doing gymnastics.I never wanted to end a horrible day by turning away."

She will be the oldest gymnast competing in the Winter Cup at the age of 28.

Douglas said she is practicing on all four equipment, but she is concentrating "a little more" on her hallmark program—the uneven bars.

As a part of the "Fierce Five" in the London Games, Douglas helped the American women's gymnastics team win its first team gold medal since the "Magnificent Seven" in 1996. In this sport, Douglas also has the most medals earned. Outstanding accomplishment, individual all-around winner.

At the 2016 Rio Olympics, she took home her third gold medal when the American women's team—known as the "Final Five"—won gold in the team competition.

With an eye toward Paris, Gabby Douglas announces her comeback to competitive gymnastics

Douglas did not try to make a return for the Tokyo Olympics, although he never made a formal retirement announcement after Rio.

Douglas would be the first American woman to make three Olympic teams since Dominique Dawes if she is selected for the 2024 squad. Simone Biles, her colleague from 2016, is aiming for a third Olympic squad as well.

For the first time, three Olympic all-around champions are vying for a berth on the same team as Sunisa Lee, the reigning champion, competes for the five-person Paris squad.

"I want to never be hateful toward the game I love," Douglas said in a November interview for the "Time Person of the Week" podcast. "I hope this isn't how it ends. I've never made a retirement announcement. I've always remembered that there is still work to be done.

When a picture of Douglas exercising in a brand-new gym went viral on social media, the gymnastics world started to speculate that she will compete in the October 2022 Olympics in Paris.

Later that year, the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, which has produced two successive Olympic all-around champions, Carly Patterson in 2004 and Nastia Liukin in 2008, among other Olympians, changed its facility. This was reflected in an update to Douglas's biography on the USA Gymnastics website. They will be led by Valery Liukin, a former coach and the father of Liukin, who won an Olympic gold medal.

Douglas has attended many gyms during his career, one of which being the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy. He received coaching from Liang Chou, the well-known coach of 2008 Olympic gold champion Shawn Johnson, throughout the 2012 Olympic cycle. Following the London Olympics, the two split up, and Douglas later trained for the 2016 Olympics with Kitia Carpenter of Buckeye Gymnastics.

In July, Douglas shared a video of her practicing on the uneven bars and said, "Loading..." Due of her high-flying release abilities, she was nicknamed "Flying Squirrel" and qualified for the uneven bars finals in both Olympics. In the instance.

Since the uneven bars has always been the US team's weakest event, teams like China and Russia with superior bars workers have been able to gain momentum. The current conflict in Ukraine means that, barring rule changes, the Russian women will not be in Paris this summer. Nevertheless, Douglas's single-bar skills will make her a formidable candidate for the squad.

This summer, in Minneapolis from June 27 to 30, the Olympic Trials will select both the men's and women's Olympic teams. It will be decided four weeks before to the U.S. Championships in Fort Worth, Texas, which will include gymnasts from the trials.