The pool of gymnastics prospects for the Paris 2024 Olympics has become even more exciting.
Trailblazer and three-time Olympic champion Gabby Douglas has returned to training and is aiming for the next matches, the 27-year-old announced via Instagram on Thursday.
One of the few American gymnasts to ever compete in a back-to-back Olympics, Douglas has been inactive since the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro where she received a team gold medal.
In announcing her return, she detailed her state of mind during the long time away from the sport, saying she had “found [herself] where it all began.” She paired the post with two black-and-white photos of herself appearing to be in vintage form on the balance beam.
“For many years I had a heartache. But I didn’t want to continue to carry anger, pain, sadness or regret and through my tears and pain I found the peace,” Douglas wrote. “I wanted to rediscover the joy of practicing this sport that I love to do.
Douglas acknowledged that the road to securing his spot on the U.S. Olympic team will once again be difficult.
“I know I have a huge task ahead of me and I am beyond grateful and excited to be back on the pitch,” she wrote.
She also posted a video of herself practicing her uneven bars, the event in which she won the US National Championship title in 2012. She then made history as the first black woman to win the Olympic all-around title in 2012.
A sign in the background of her first photos shows that she trained at the World Olympic Gymnastics Academy, the Texas gym owned by the parents of 2008 Olympic champion Nastia Liukin.
Nastia’s trainer and father, Valeri Liukin, confirmed in February that Douglas was back in action and training at Frisco.
Now that she announced it herself, the three former Olympic champions are back in training in hopes of returning to the games.
Simone Biles, the 2016 Olympic champion, is set to compete for the first time since 2021 at next month’s US Classic. The news was announced by the list of attendees at the event, which also included Sunisa Lee. The Auburn star won gold in Tokyo in 2021 and was forced to cut short her final college season due to a kidney problem. Training around the condition, she told her Instagram followers on Wednesday that she was “always in and out of the gym.”
Lee and Biles also attended a Team USA training camp that ended on Wednesday. Douglas did not show up for camp. Hopefully, she will participate in the US Classic, which is the qualification for the national championships.