Olympic gymnastics champion Gabby Douglas says she is aiming for the 2024 Paris Video games

Sports activities Information

The 2-time gold medalist seems to be so as to add one other one in two years.

Gabby Douglas, as seen on this picture, goals to make her return to Olympic gymnastics eight years since her final medal. AP Photograph/Gregory Bull, File

By WILL GRAVES, Related Press

Gabby Douglas, the primary Black girl to win the Olympic all-around gymnastics title, is taking intention on the 2024 Video games in Paris.

Douglas introduced on her Instagram web page Thursday that she is making a comeback try, a dozen years after her triumph in London in 2012 and eight years after her final competitors, the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.

“I wished to seek out the enjoyment once more for the game that I completely love doing,” Douglas posted. “I do know I’ve an enormous process forward of me and I’m past grateful and excited to get again out on the ground.”

The now 27-year-old Douglas additionally posted video of herself working towards uneven bars, her signature occasion.

Douglas is the second Olympic champion in current weeks to say they’re pointing towards Paris.

Simone Biles, who received the all-around gold in Rio and was teammates with Douglas on the five-woman U.S. squad that cruised to the group gold in Brazil, is returning to competitors on the U.S. Basic in Chicago in early August.

Douglas has but to stipulate a timeline for when she is perhaps prepared to affix what can be a really crowded discipline to make what could possibly be a loaded American group beneath the rings subsequent summer time. Douglas may petition USA Gymnastics for a spot on the U.S. Basic. She had not accomplished that as of Thursday afternoon however nonetheless has ample time to take action. There is no such thing as a petition deadline for the occasion, set for Saturday, Aug. 5 at NOW Area within the Chicago suburbs.

Douglas grew to become one of many faces of the 2012 Olympics after her good efficiency within the all-around last helped her change into the third straight American girl to say the most important title in her sport. She grew to become a crossover star within the aftermath, successful AP Feminine Athlete of the 12 months in 2012, writing her autobiography and having her life story changed into a TV film.

She took a few years off after London however returned to competitors in 2015, finally ending second to Biles within the all-around on the 2015 world championships and making a second Olympic group, serving to the U.S. declare gold for a second straight Video games.

Douglas by no means formally introduced her retirement after Rio de Janeiro, as an alternative dabbling in actuality TV and changing into a motivational speaker, amongst different issues.

Her return comes at a time when America’s prime feminine gymnasts are competing into their 20s and generally past. Biles is 26. Chellsie Memmel, the 2005 world all-around champion and 2008 Olympic silver medalist, was in her early 30s when she made an sudden comeback in 2021. Memmel is now the technical lead for the U.S. Gymnastics ladies’s elite program.

Douglas, who’s at the moment coaching out of World Olympic Gymnastics Academy within the Dallas, Texas space, can have appreciable work forward of her. The relief of identify, picture and likeness guidelines have allowed a number of members of the 2020 Olympic group — together with all-around champion Suni Lee, ground train champion Jade Carey and world and Olympic medalist Jordan Chiles — to increase their elite careers.