Gabby Douglas on gymnastics comeback: 'I want to do this again'

It would have been understandable for Gabby Douglas to quit gymnastics after 2012. When you have won the Olympic all-around, lined up millions of dollars in endorsements and will never again have a 16-year-old's body … well, why go on?

Simple. Inside, she is little different from the 9-year-old who thought about someday competing in the Olympic Games.

Even in London, Douglas said, her thought was: "I want to do this again."

Since those Olympics, Douglas has changed residences, agents and coaches. She is not even the same size.

She said he has grown to 5-2½, or 3½ inches taller than she was three years ago. Yet all that has brought her back to a training regimen of four to six hours a day at Buckeye Gymnastics in Westerville, Ohio.

She was in Indianapolis on Sunday to participate in a health fair at the Indiana State Fairgrounds and to visit the Northwestside offices of St. Vincent Sports Performance, which supplies sports medicine support for USA Gymnastics.

Douglas, 19, is to return here soon for the P&G Championships, set for Aug. 13-16 at Bankers Life Fieldhouse. Those nationals will select six women to represent Team USA in October's World Championships and be a step toward the 2016 Rio de Janeiro Olympics.

The United States hasn't had a female gymnast in a second Olympics since Dominique Dawes and Amy Chow were on the 2000 team after winning gold in 1996. At last month's Jesolo Trophy meet in Italy, there were signs Douglas is on track to do so.

She finished fourth in the all-around with a score of 58.90 behind three U.S. teammates: Simone Biles, 62.10; Bailie Key, 59.50, and Aly Raisman, 59.10.

With Biles and Douglas both there, the meet was the first since the 1980 Olympics in which the reigning world and Olympic all-around champions competed against each other.

Douglas said she fulfilled her modest goal: deliver "four clean routines." She was more excited than nervous.

"It was great for me. I mean, I loved it," she said. "It was good getting back out there."

The 4-9 Biles, 18, looms so large over the sport that she is essentially considered unbeatable. She has nine medals from the 2013 and 2014 worlds, including two golds in the all-around.

Douglas called Biles "phenomenal" and said she loves her style of "big gymnastics." Nothing about unbeatable, though.

"So I mean, I love that she pushes me," Douglas said.

She benefited from time away, allowing ankle and hamstring injuries to heal. She said her taller frame actually allows her to do some skills, such as vault, more easily.

"I just have to say that physically and mentally, I feel great and I'm stronger this time," Douglas said.

She said she needs to develop more difficult skills but also more consistency. That is necessary to keep up with a deep U.S. pool of talent.

She declined to elaborate on the break-up with former coach Liang Chow, other than to say, "The process was kind of hard."

At 14, she moved from Virginia Beach, Va., so she could train in Chow's gym at West Des Moines, Iowa. After the Olympics, she moved with her family to Los Angeles before returning to Iowa in May 2013. She left two months later, returned to L.A., and went back to Iowa a year ago.

After leaving again, she had difficulty in finding a new coach and gym. She settled in the suburb of Columbus, Ohio. (It is oddly coincidental that Biles was born in Columbus.) Douglas had become close friends with Buckeye gymnast Nia Dennis, 16, also a member of the national team. They are coached there by Kittia Carpenter.

"I see them pulling for each other and pushing for each other," Carpenter told the Columbus Dispatch.

Douglas lives in Ohio with her maternal grandmother, Carolyn Ford, who retired after 35 years in the U.S. Postal Service and relocated from Virginia. Douglas said her grandmother – referred to by everyone as Miss Carolyn – is a great cook who is "all about nutritious stuff."

Douglas' post-Olympic aftermath included an autobiography and Lifetime movie. Now, add to that an Oxygen reality show. The show, co-produced by Douglas and her mother, Natalie Hawkins, is to debut later this year.

Douglas said she could not elaborate on the TV series.

"We'll see how everything works out," she said.

That goes for her gymnastics comeback, too.

Call Star reporter David Woods at (317) 444-6195. Follow him on Twitter: @DavidWoods007.