Olympic gold medalist Gabby Douglas announced she has returned to gymnastics training in an Instagram post Thursday. Here’s what you need to know:
- The 27-year-old, who in 2012 became the first Black woman to win the Olympic all-around title, wrote that after “a lot of journaling, reflecting, soul searching,” she has “found (herself) back where it all began.” She last competed at the 2016 Olympics, helping the American team to its second straight gold medal.
- Although Douglas did not directly mention Olympic aspirations Thursday, she ended the caption to her post with “Let’s do this #2024.” The announcement included two photos of Douglas on the balance beam, and she later posted a video of herself practicing bars.
- Douglas’ announcement follows those of the two most recent Olympic all-around champions, Simone Biles and Suni Lee, who also said they are back training.
The Athletic’s instant analysis:
Will Douglas do the all-around?
That’s hard to say at the moment given that Douglas hasn’t revealed much about what events she’s been training or the difficulty level of routines she may bring to competition. She did share a clip on Instagram of her performing a flawless Healy and Lin — two difficult uneven bars skills that require a gymnast to complete a full pirouette on one arm while maintaining a handstand position atop the high bar — as well as a photo of her leaping on beam, so it’s safe to assume she’s been practicing those two events. But vault and floor exercise, the leg events, often require more time and conditioning to regain the strength and stamina necessary for safely executing elite-level vaults or tumbling passes. — DeMeyer
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What are her chances of making the 2024 team?
The field vying for spots on the Paris Olympic team is incredibly deep, but if Douglas brings a difficult bar set and a solid beam routine to the table, she could be an asset to Team USA on its two weaker events. (Teams competing in women’s artistic gymnastics at the 2024 Games will consist of five athletes, unlike the unusually complicated format of the 2020 Olympics which included four-person teams and two specialists who did not participate in the team competitions.)
Assuming Biles is targeting a third Olympics, Douglas will be competing against four gymnasts who represented Team USA at the Tokyo Games. In addition to Biles and Lee, floor exercise Olympic champion Jade Carey and team silver medalist Jordan Chiles are also aiming for another shot at Olympic glory. Shilese Jones, who had a breakout performance at the 2022 World Championships where she helped Team USA to gold and captured individual silvers in the all-around and bars finals, is also a serious contender to keep an eye on. — DeMeyer
Backstory
In preparation for her third Olympics, Douglas has been training at WOGA, the Texas-based gym that produced 2004 Olympic all-around champion Carly Patterson and 2008 all-around champion Nastia Liukin.
Douglas hadn’t posted to her Instagram account since last August, when she announced she would be taking a “step back from the socials” to work on her mental health.
The 26-year-old Biles, meanwhile, announced last month she would compete at the U.S. Classic in August, marking her first meet since the Tokyo Olympics. The four-time Olympic champion took a hiatus from the sport following the Games, during which she won a team silver and a bronze on balance beam but struggled with a bout of “the twisties,” a term gymnasts use to describe a sudden loss of air awareness when performing skills that require them to twist while flipping.
(Photo: EMMANUEL DUNAND / AFP via Getty Images)
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