Three-time Olympic champion Gabby Douglas withdrew from this week’s national championships, ending her attempt to make the U.S. Olympic team for this summer’s Paris Games. USA Gymnastics confirmed Douglas’s withdrawal, and Douglas told ESPN she suffered an ankle injury in training this week that prevented her from participating.
Douglas, 28, last competed at the U.S. Classic on May 18, but she withdrew from that competition after struggling on bars during the first rotation. Douglas made her season debut in April after a competitive layoff that lasted nearly eight years. She had qualified to perform on vault, bars and beam at nationals but did not earn the required score to compete in the all-around.
At the national championships, the best female gymnasts will perform Friday and Sunday. The top two finishers based on their cumulative all-around scores automatically qualify for the U.S. Olympic trials in late June. A minimum of 10 additional athletes also will be invited to compete.
The U.S. selection committee will consider petitions to the trials for athletes who were a member of the 2020 Olympic team or the world championships teams in 2022 or 2023, as well as athletes who represented the country internationally during the current competitive season. Douglas does not meet any of those criteria.
Douglas won the Olympic all-around gold medal in 2012, becoming the first Black woman to win the Olympic title. She returned to the Olympics in 2016, helping the U.S. women repeat as gold medalists in the team competition. In Rio de Janeiro, she earned the third-best all-around score during the qualifying round but did not advance to the final, which is limited to two athletes per country. Douglas told ESPN that she plans to continue training with the hope of making the Olympic team in 2028.
“I missed gymnastics,” Douglas said before the U.S. Classic. “And I loved it. It ended rough for me in 2016, so I didn’t want to end on that note. Regardless of the outcome, I wanted to make sure I end on love and joy instead of hating something that I love.”
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