Olympic Champion Gabby Douglas Announces Return to Gymnastics
Gabby Douglas is going for the gold once again.
Eight years after stepping away from the mat, the Olympic gymnast announced that she will be competing at the upcoming Winter Cup on Feb. 24.
“I’m still a competitor at heart,” Gabby shared during her Feb. 6 appearance on NBC News’ Hallie Jackson Now. “After watching the 2022 championships, I was like, ‘I miss competing.'”
Soon, the 28-year-old said she found herself in the gym thinking “maybe I could do this again.”
“From that moment on,” Gabby recalled, “I just started training.”
The Winter Cup will be her first elite gymnastics competition since 2016, when she took “a step back and work on myself and work on my mental state.”
Noting that she “never really announced a retirement” back then, Gabby continued, “I didn’t want to end this sport how I did in 2016.”
The athlete added, “I love this sport and I never wanted to walk away on a bad day. I want to make sure I really give it my all and end on a good note.”
And that means setting her sights on the Paris Olympics later this year.
“I would just love to go back out there and represent Team U.S.A. just one more time,” Gabby said. “Just to have that feeling of being part of something—being part of a team again—would be a huge honor.”
Should she make it through the Olympic trials, the upcoming sporting event will be her third Summer Games.
Rich Polk/Getty Images for IMDb
Gabby previously competed at the 2012 London Olympics, winning a gold medal in both the all-around and team events as part of the “Fierce Five” alongside McKayla Maroney, Aly Raisman, Kyla Ross and Jordyn Wieber. Gabby returned to the Olympic stage four years later at Rio de Janeiro, where she took home another gold with teammates Aly, Simone Biles, Laurie Hernandez and Madison Kocian.
“What a journey so far,” Gabby wrote of her comeback in a Feb. 6 Instagram post. “it’s had its ups and downs, but i’m not done pushing the boundaries. i’m determined to make every moment count! SO happy to get back out on the competition floor and enjoy this sport that i fell in love with as a little girl. here’s to never giving up on our dreams.”
To catch up with your favorite Olympic gymnasts, keep reading.
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