The 2012 Olympic champion withdrew from this weekend’s national championships on Wednesday, ending her hopes of making the U.S. team for this summer’s Paris Games after an almost eight-year hiatus from competition. Douglas informed ESPN that she had injured her ankle during training this week. Her agent, Lowell Taub, declined to provide further comment.
“I spoke to her today,” said Chellsie Memmel, who is now USA Gymnastics’ women’s program technical lead and can relate to Douglas’ situation, having attempted her own comeback three years ago, a decade after her last competition.
“We had a really good talk. I told her, ‘I know how you’re feeling.’ Competing as an older athlete feels very different,” said Memmel, who was part of the U.S.
The team that secured the silver medal at the 2008 Olympics. “I’m saddened for her, but prioritizing her health is wise.”
The announcement was not unexpected following Douglas’ struggles in her first two competitions since the Rio Olympics. She fell twice on the uneven bars, her signature event, at the American Classic on April 27. Although she showed improvement in training before the U.S. Classic on May 18, she scratched after one event following two more falls on bars.
She appeared determined but resigned as she left the podium in Hartford, Connecticut, aware of the challenging path ahead. Douglas needed to score a 51 or higher at the U.S. Classic to qualify for the all-around at the national championships, but her 10.1 on bars made that unlikely. She had already qualified for three events at nationals—vault, bars, and balance beam—based on her performance at the American Classic, but would have needed near-perfect scores at nationals to secure an invite to the Olympic trials next month.
“I honestly didn’t perform as well as I wanted,” Douglas said of the American Classic, her first competition since the Rio Olympics in 2016. “But I have to give myself some grace because it’s been so long.”
Douglas boasts three Olympic gold medals to her name, clinching team golds in 2012 and 2016, along with securing the coveted all-around title in London. She left the sport after Rio, saying at the U.S. Classic that she was “hating” gymnastics at the time. The first Black woman to win the Olympic all-around title, Douglas faced relentless criticism from fans in both 2012 and 2016. She was ridiculed for her hair and chastised for her demeanor during the national anthem, and some fans incorrectly argued that she didn’t deserve to be on the Rio team.
Douglas had the third-highest score in qualifying in Rio, behind Simone Biles and Aly Raisman, but didn’t make the all-around final due to the two-per-country rule. Her impressive performance on the uneven bars, earning the second-highest score for the United States in both qualifying and team finals, effectively dashed Russia’s hopes of catching up to the Americans.
“It ended rough for me in 2016,” Douglas said.
Though she never officially retired, most assumed Douglas was finished with the sport. However, while watching the national championships in 2022, she realized she missed gymnastics and wanted to end her career on her own terms. Within a few months, rumors circulated that she was training at WOGA, the gym outside Dallas owned by the parents of 2008 Olympic champion Nastia Liukin. Douglas confirmed her return to training last July and began posting clips of herself in the gym.
“No matter what the result may be, I want to conclude with a sense of love and joy rather than harboring negativity towards something I hold dear,” Douglas expressed.
Asked if she now felt that way, Douglas responded, “I do! Yes, I do.”
Despite her renewed love for gymnastics, Douglas simply didn’t have enough time. Performing routines in competition is different from training, and two meets were not sufficient for Douglas after such a long break.
“I have a deep love for this sport and thrive on pushing my boundaries,” Douglas shared with ESPN. “My hope is to be a source of inspiration for both my fellow athletes and the upcoming generation of gymnasts, showing them that age is merely a number and that with dedication and hard work, anything is achievable.”
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