“Didn’t Even Have a Day Off”: Gabby Douglas Recalls Hardships of Marta Era in Gym While Preparing for LA 2028

Gabby Douglas kept away from gymnastics for eight years. But, unlike other athletes who would call it a day by now, Gabby has refused to do so. She returned to compete this year at the US Classic to try and make it to the Paris Olympics. But she struggled while performing the uneven bars and left before she could complete the competition. This was later revealed to be because of an ankle injury. But her Paris dream shattering didn’t bring her confidence down. She wants to compete in the LA Olympics. This would be 12 years after her appearance in Rio, where she was part of the ‘final five’, the last team coached by Marta Karolyi.

While Marta Karolyi’s era was largely successful, it has become quite infamous now. This is because her training regime was described as brutal, as she and her husband used to regularly beat up athletes if they made mistakes. This was according to Emilia Eberle, who used to be in the Romanian team coached by Karolyi. She was also accused of ignoring the allegations against former team doctor Larry Nassar. It was a hectic and traumatic time for the US gymnastics team. Now that they have moved past it, Gabby Douglas talked about how her training regime has changed since that brutal era.

Gabby Douglas talks about the hardships of the Marta Karolyi era

In the SoFi podcast episode, Gabby Douglas was asked about the differences in her training regime during the Marta Karolyi tough love era and her current preparation. She said that she barely had any days off during that hectic period. “So in 2012, I went six days a week, Sunday was off, but it felt so quick. It was like I didn’t even have a day off.” That would have been common in the Marta Karolyi tough love era, where all the athletes had to work really hard; otherwise, they were berated by coaches. In contrast, her routine is far more relaxed now. Since she had been out of the sport for so long, she needed to get her body prepared again for the intensity.

Gabby Douglas said, “A normal gym would be like missing three days. Kind of. I didn’t do a lot of hours, especially going into the 2024 journey. Again, too, I had to pace myself because I had been out for so long. And just to bring everything together so quickly, it’s very dangerous because you’re body is not used to that pounding. It’s not used to being stretched like that very quickly. So I had to take it seriously, piece by piece, because I had been out so long.” Her training routine makes sense when the fact she’s 28 is considered and she has to cater to her body’s needs. In 2012, she was barely 16 years old and at her peak fitness.

Thus, a change was bound to happen. Gabby Douglas also talked about how she now lives far from her gym, unlike her earlier years. In 2012, she lived 5 minutes from the gym. In 2016, she lived 15 minutes from the gym. But now, she lives an hour away from the gym. So, it’s safe to say that she has done a lot of tweaking since the infamous Karolyi era. However, she hasn’t given up on returning to professional gymnastics just yet.

Gabby Douglas is not yet ready to say goodbye to her gymnastics career

After eight years of mostly watching through the sidelines, Gabby Douglas was all set to prepare to return at the Paris Olympics. This would have made her the oldest female Olympian gymnast at the age of 28. But an unforeseen ankle injury kept her out of the competition. This shattered her dreams of competing in the Olympics for the third time in her career after London and Rio. But she hasn’t given up on her dreams yet as she looks at a probable return to the LA Olympics.

She will be 32 years old then, and the oldest record of a gymnast will surely be hers. Normally, gymnasts retire from the sport at 24–25 years of age. However, according to Gabby Douglas, who created history in the London Olympics when she became the first black woman to win gold in her first edition, age is just a number. In an interview with PEOPLE magazine, she said, “And I just think that when you have the proper diet, structure, schedule, and everything that aligns, then you can do anything that you put your mind to.” It would be nice if, indeed, her words do come true and she does get to go back for the competition. Whatever the outcome may be, what she had achieved previously in the Olympics will never be forgotten.