Seeking repeat, Douglas leaps back into sport
HOFFMAN ESTATES, I LL . Nadia couldn’t do it. Mary Lou and most of the rest didn’t even try.
Only two women have repeated as the Olympic all-around champion, and the last was almost 50 years ago. As much as the gold medal itself, breaking that drought is why Gabby Douglas has put the spoils of success on hold to return to competition.
“That’s really such a big motivation for me. That would be so amazing if I could go back and defend my title,” Douglas said before finishing second in Saturday’s Secret Classic, her first competition in the USA since winning gold in London three years ago.
Ask any athlete, and he or she will tell you how much harder it is to stay at the top than it is to get there. Motivations change. So do the demands and the expectations. Not to mention that all other athletes now make you their No. 1 target, driving them to spend that additional hour in the gym or run that extra mile.
Now imagine trying to hang on in a sport that prizes youth and where Father Time does his work at warp speed. Get a few years older, grow an inch or two or, God forbid, go through puberty, and those skills that once came so easily now seem like herculean efforts.
Taking a break can wreak havoc on a gymnast, too, making her feel as if she’s starting from scratch when she does come back. It takes months of repetitions to make those skills look effortless yet only a few weeks for that muscle memory to be erased.
Despite all that, here Douglas is again.
“I never really wanted to retire. I wanted to take a little bit of a break and then go for it,” said Douglas, who did the red-carpet circuit, made appearances and saw her biography turned into a TV movie after winning gold.
“I have the rest of my life to rest and relax. Why not do it?” the 19-year-old said. “My body feels great; I feel really strong, really powerful, really confident. Why not go for it? Why not give it that shot?
“If I had watched the Olympics and not been there, I’d have been really disappointed in myself.”
It’s not quite as easy as simply saying, “I want to compete again,” however. Learning from the failed comebacks by other Olympians, Douglas and fellow Fierce Fiver Aly Raisman returned to the gym almost two years ago yet didn’t compete again until March.
A solid year was spent getting their bodies back into shape and relearning their skills.
“Sometimes in the past, the girls didn’t realize. They thought, ‘Oh, I know how to do these skills.’ But their body could not handle it physically,” said Martha Karolyi, the U.S. women’s national team coordinator.
“I think it’s very good, the early comeback, and I think we’re pretty much on schedule.”
Douglas’ start values on uneven bars and floor exercise Saturday were just 0.2 points less than what they were in London, and her start value on beam was 0.1 point less. While she was coy about how much higher they’ll go, it’s safe to say there are upgrades to come, maybe even as early as nationals next month.
“More in store, you got that right,” she said, grinning.
She’ll need every tenth she can get. Gymnastics did not stand still waiting for Douglas to return, and she will have formidable competition for gold from two-time world champion Simone Biles, who just happens to be her occasional roommate at training camps.
Her power and polish put Biles in a class of her own. On Saturday, she finished 1.9 points ahead of Douglas — a massive gap in a sport in which mere decimal points are often all that separates silver and gold.
“I just have to really, really work very hard,” Douglas said. “You know, nothing ’s handed to you. You can’t walk in and be like, ‘Oh, I got it.’ No, you have to really focus on — for me, I have to focus on what I’m doing, one step at a time, and let the results come up by themselves.”
Make no mistake, though. History is very much in her sights.
FOLLOW COLUMNIST NANCY ARMOUR
@nrarmour for commentary and insight on major sports.