Gabby Douglas returning to competitive gymnastics

Olympics

By Christian Arnold

Gabby Douglas is hoping to go for the gold one more time. 

The American gymnastics icon announced Tuesday night that she would return to competitive gymnastics and “most definitely” has her sights set on competing at the 2024 Summer Olympics in Paris. 

Douglas, who became a household name as a member of the “Fierce Five” that won team all-around gold in 2012 and the “Final Five” when they won gold again in 2016, made the announcement on “Hallie Jackson NOW.”

“It would mean a lot. It’s definitely a lot of hard work that I’ve had to put into it,” Douglas said about potentially representing the United States again in the Olympics. “But it would mean a lot. I would just love to go back out there and represent USA just one more time. Just to have that feeling of being a part of something. Being a part of a team again would be amazing and a huge honor.”

The 28-year-old gymnast will compete in the Winter Cup later this month in Louisville, Kentucky, marking the first time since the 2016 Summer Olympics in Rio that Douglas has competed. 

The event is the first elite gymnastics competition of the year. 

Douglas had announced last summer that she would return to the sport in a post on Instagram.

Douglas has already cemented her place in the history of the sport as the first black gymnast to win the Olympic all-around gold medal during the 2012 games in London and was part of the historic U.S. gymnastics teams in 2012 and 2016. 

The American women became the first to take home gold in the team event since the “Magnificent Seven” did so in 1996. 

They did it again in 2016 when they captured gold for the team all-around, bringing Douglas’ gold medal count to three. 

Eight years later, she’s looking to add more hardware to her trophy case after getting the itch to compete again when she was watching the 2022 championships. 

“I was like, ‘man I miss competing,’” Douglas recalled. “I was trying to figure out how… I’m still a competitor at heart. Trying to figure out how to get this out of me. I decided to start back training. Take time to myself and then I found myself in the gym and I was like, ‘Alright maybe we  can just do this again.’ From that moment on I just started training and I was like, ‘Wow I can’t believe I’m in this spot again.’” 

Douglas never made any official retirement announcement, but she didn’t attempt to make the Olympic team for the Tokyo Games in 2020. 

She could become the first American woman since Dominique Dawes to compete on three Olympic teams, a feat fellow gymnastics star Simone Biles is also attempting to do this year. 

Speculation had started to pop up in 2022 that Douglas would make another Olympic run after posts popped up on social media showing her training at a new gym. 

When asked if this was a comeback for her, Douglas acknowledged that it “sort of is” for her. 

“I didn’t want to end this sport how I did in 2016,” she explained. “I wanted to take a step back and work on myself and work on my mental state. I love gymnastics, I love pushing myself every single day and I love the sport. I never wanted to walk away on a bad day, and I want to make sure – I know I’ve said it before – but I really want to make sure that I really give it my all and end on a good note.” 

The Winter Cup will run from Feb. 23-25.