GABBY DOUGLAS IS OUT FOR RIO 2016

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Welcome to Buckeye Gymnastics, which since last
summer has been the training home for the 2012
Olympic women’s all-around champion.
Owned and operated for the past 32 years by
former Ohio State gymnast David Holcomb, the
club has played an integral role in Douglas’s
Olympic comeback.

She said the gym, combined with her working
relationship with new coach Kittia Carpenter, has
helped her regain confidence as she works
toward a return to the 2016 Rio Olympics.
“The relationship between me and Kittia is
growing and growing,” said Douglas, 19. “Every
single day we work very well together. I love her.
Her training plan for me is amazing because we
got to sit down and kind of talk. We’re pretty
much on the same page every time we talk, and I
love it when that happens.”
Douglas hopes to compete for the first time since
winning two Olympic gold medals at the London
Games – in the all-around and the team event – at
the Jesolo Trophy on March 28-29 in Italy.
Her long-range goal is lofty: Try to become t
he
first woman to win consecutive Olympic all-
around titles since Vera Caslavska of
Czechoslovakia in 1968.
The last Olympic champion to repeat as a
medalist in the all-around was Romania’s Nadia
Comaneci, who followed up her gold-medal
winning performance in 1976 by tying for silver
with Germany’s Maxi Gnauck at the 1980 Games
in Moscow.
Of the three previous U.S. women to win the
Olympic all-around gold medal - Mary Lou Retton,
Carly Patterson, and Nastia Liukin - none have
made a return trip to the Olympics.
For certain, Douglas’s presence in Westerville, a
suburb of Columbus, Ohio, has been a boost for
all.
On a recent Wednesday, as Douglas was
encouraged while training on uneven bars by
fellow U.S. national team member and Buckeye
Gymnastics product Nia Dennis, more than a
dozen pint-sized gymnasts more than half their
age were practicing dance exercises nearby.
On the other side of the gym, a gallery of parents
kept watch of both training groups. It was quite a
scene, but it was also a quiet scene. A respectful
one, too: Everyone adheres to a club policy
posted on a small sign near the entrance: No
photography permitted.
“Even though they’re on the other side of the
gym, they all feel like they’re part of one big
team,” said Melanie Deis, who's the mother of 8-
year-old gymnast Grace Deis. “I’m still in awe that
Gabby came here, and it’s so great that Gabby
and Nia have each other. I could sit here and
watch them all day.”
Douglas said she remembers what it felt like to be
8.
“I remember watching Carly Patterson and Nastia
(Liukin), and they were doing all these difficult
moves and I was, ‘I’m never going to be able to do
that,'" Douglas said. “My mom would say, ‘Don’t
say that. You’ll be able to do that.’ And I’m like,
‘No. Mom, come on. They’re amazing.’’’
Years later, here she is, ringing that bell, making
her own music.

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