Gold-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas hints at Olympic comeback

By David K. Li

Pioneering gold medal-winning gymnast Gabby Douglas hinted Thursday that she’s attempting an Olympics comeback with hopes of competing in next summer’s Games.

Douglas posted pictures of herself back in the gym, telling her 1.5 million Instagram followers that she’s in a good mental health place, having “found peace.”

She said she wants “to find joy again for the sport that i absolutely love doing.”

Douglas will be 28 by summer 2024 when the Olympics take place in Paris. “i know i have a huge task ahead of me and i am beyond grateful and excited to get back out on the floor,” she wrote.

She ended her message with emojis of a flexing bicep and a smiling face with sunglasses and “let’s do this #2024.”

Douglas, of Virginia Beach, Virginia, struck gold twice in London in 2012: in the individual all-around and the team all-around. She helped the U.S. score team all-around gold again in Rio de Janeiro in 2016.

She was the first Black woman to win an all-around title, and she was the toast of the 2012 competition.

Two weeks ago, Douglas’ 2016 teammate Simone Biles, a four-time gold medalist, said she’s ready to return to competition, as well.

Biles and organizers of the U.S. Classic announced that she will compete Aug. 4-5 at NOW Arena in Hoffman Estates, Illinois.

It would be Biles’ first competition since the Tokyo Olympics in 2021, when she brought worldwide attention to the mental health struggles of athletes.

Biles, 26, was a breakout star of the 2016 Rio Olympics, striking gold in the team all-around, the individual all-around, the vault and the floor exercise and taking bronze on the balance beam.

Though women’s gymnastics was once thought of as a teenager’s sport, Biles and Douglas are returning at a time when America’s top athletes are competing well into their 20s.

Biles and MyKayla Skinner were both 24 when they competed for Team USA in 2021.

Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world all-around champion and 2008 Olympic silver medalist, was in her early 30s when she made an unexpected comeback in 2021, the AP reported. She is now the technical lead for U.S. Gymnastics’ women’s elite program.

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