American Olympic gymnast Aly Raisman knows a thing or two about an iconic comeback.
The three-time gold medalist Raisman is now looking forward to seeing fellow-American Olympic gymnast Gabby Douglas take her talents back to the big stage at the 2024 Summer Games in Paris.
Both part of the 2012 "Fierce Five" and 2016 "Final Five," the two stars enjoyed fame and glory in the early stages of their careers.
While Raisman’s comeback to competition came in 2015 after stepping away from the sport after the 2012 London Olympics, Douglas is set to make her return after last competing at the 2016 Olympics in Rio de Janeiro.
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“I was so impressed and so excited when I saw on Twitter that she was coming back and like, I just admire her so much,” Raisman told NBC. “I think if anybody could do it, it’s her [Douglas].”
The now-27-year-old Douglas is making her comeback with three gold medals under her belt – two of which were earned at 2012 London and one at 2016 Rio de Janeiro.
“When someone has that much experience…It's just so exciting to see because she's obviously learned so much over the years,” Raisman said about Douglas’ return.
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Gymnastic coach Valeri Liukin confirmed to NBC in February 2023 that Douglas had been training "very hard" at his family's World Olympic Gymnastics Academy in Texas.
A 2024 Paris Games return would bid Douglas to become the oldest U.S. Olympic female gymnast since 1952, according to Olympedia.org.
But Raisman doesn’t understand why there is so much pressure for gymnasts to be successful early in their careers and wishes more females would turn to college before making that immediate jump to the professional stage.
“I think that our society has sort of put this pressure that gymnastics is like a young person's sport," Raisman said. "I think these college gymnasts are setting such a great example by being able to do both [college and professional] but then also competing past that age that I think the media has put the pressure on of like gymnasts have to be young."
Some of these gymnasts Raisman is referring to are Suni Lee, Jade Carey, Jordan Chiles and Grace McCallum, who all went on to compete in elite gymnastics after finishing at the NCAA level.
As a matter of fact, Chiles and Carey made history at the 2022 OOFOS U.S. Gymnastics Championships, becoming the first U.S. Olympic female gymnasts to return to elite competition following an NCAA season.
While Raisman is cheering for her fellow-American gymnasts to dominate in Paris next year, she believes it’s too soon to make any predictions for the Games.
“I just know from experience it's too early to have any type of prediction because there's still so much that can happen,” she said. “Even if somebody is not on someone's radar, they have so much time to improve. And I think in this situation, it's sort of like slow and steady wins the race. It's kind of just slowly just coming up and, you know, it's just about peaking at the right time, which is very hard.”
Team USA enters the 2024 Summer Olympics with three team gold medals, in 1996, 2012, and 2016. The team has also collected an impressive four silvers and three bronzes over the years.
While Raisman won't be competing as she retired from competitive gymnastics in 2020, you can find her whipping up some tasty, healthy-baked goods.
Staying mentally calm is something Raisman really values as she has recently opened up about her migraine journey with the support of her sponsor, UBRELVY. It was a diagnosis that seemed scary at first but then turned into a blessing because she was able to better understand what was happening to her body.
"I'm really interested in finding things that make me feel good and help my mental health and baking just makes me happy... present and relaxed," she said.
