Douglas, Raisman face age-old question in pursuit of Rio Olympics comeback

LOS ANGELES – Gabby Douglas is 20 years old in a sport that isn't kind to 18-year-olds.

The last three Olympic women's gymnastics all-around gold medalists were aged 16, 18 and 16, the most recent being Douglas herself. In the last two Olympics, no all-around medalist was older than 17.

You can go back four or five Games ago and find some older female gymnasts who succeeded, but in this sport, those are the olden days. There hasn't been a repeat winner since the 1964 and 1968 Games when Vera Caslavska of the then-Czechoslovakia did it. Caslavska was 26 the second time around.

"Well, I don't feel that old," Douglas said with a laugh here Monday at the Team USA Media Summit at the Beverly Hilton.

She isn't, except for the standards of competitive gymnastic standards. It's a cruel sport. If Douglas can pull this off, it will be the greatest accomplishment in a career filled with them. It's the ultimate challenge, the repeat.

"It's coming from my heart," Douglas said. "I really believe I can achieve more. I really do."

The focus required is so intense that maintaining it into adulthood has proven nearly impossible, even for those who displayed it before. Avoiding injuries is nearly a forever challenge. Bodies naturally change and they never seem to grow more flexible or lithe.

Then there is just general maturity, which causes a sane person to question why they might attempt some ever-more complicated move on, say, a 4-inch wide balance beam – a broken

neck seemingly on the line.

"You don't have that much of an innocent mind," said Aly Raisman, 21, and Douglas' teammate at the 2012 London Games who also is trying to qualify for August's Rio Olympics. "There are days I am tired and you look at that beam and you just don't feel like it's going to happen. It's scary.

Gymnastics is one of those sports where if you're a little bit off, you wipe out and can hurt yourself."

Meanwhile, there is Simone Biles, who at 18 is on the older side of things. The three-time all-around world champion will be 19 by Rio, but she is the new next big thing in a sport that always seeks such a thing.

Often it isn't just age, but hunger. The sport is so precise that even the slightest mental distraction can finish you. Elite gymnasts are often home-schooled high schoolers with limited life outside the gymnastics hall. To maximize her potential before the 2012 Games, Douglas moved away from her friends and family in Virginia to train in the same intense Iowa gym that four-time medalist Shawn Johnson did prior to 2008.

"A comeback is very tough," Douglas said. "When you have taken a lot of time off after the Olympics and you don't want to come back, actually the break feels nice, the freedom feels amazing and then you struggle with the discipline of training."

Douglas enjoyed a whirlwind after winning gold in London. She became a massive celebrity. There was a book and a movie and commercials and appearances and general celebrity. She made a lot of money. It would have been easy to call it a day and move on with life.

The thought never crossed her mind.

"I said, 'I don't want to retire,' " Douglas said. "I felt too young and too fresh to give up gymnastics."

So now she's back. She says she's seeking consistency in her training, but other than that she thinks she can compete. Maybe she isn't Biles, but who knows?

Douglas says not much else has changed, except she realizes the gymnasts she trains with and competes against tend to be a bit in awe of her. Her poster was likely on their wall. Biles, for her part, recalls watching the 2012 Games from a projector on a wall at her old gym.

"It was awesome," Biles said.

Other than that, Douglas said it's all the same.

"I've grown a little taller," said Douglas, now pushing 5-foot. "I kind of like it."

You have to marvel at the focus and dedication. Douglas realizes she's in a unique and challenging position. Nastia Liukin, the all-around champ of the 2008 Games, tried to make the 2012 team only to fail. Now Douglas wants to take it a step further, so everything is about gymnastics, everything is about regaining the all-encompassing focus of being a teenager.

Raisman, for her part, says the drive to make a second Olympics is worth putting a traditional life on hold. That means even as an adult living a life of a high school kid – or the elderly.

"The girls always make fun of me and say I'm like a grandma, but I require a lot of sleep," Raisman said. "I'm probably the only 21-year-old who is in bed at 7:30 on a Saturday night. I nap all the time and I go to bed early. I really don't have a social life right now but that's fine."

That's the challenge. All sports are hard. All sports are challenging. None may compare to gymnastics though. It's why everyone retires. Or almost everyone.

Raisman is philosophical. She sees both sides.

"When a football player wins a Super Bowl, no one asks them why they come back," Raisman said. "When the swimmers win, they don't ask them. With gymnastics they always say it can't be done but Gabby and I are trying to disprove that."

Then again …

"I think you have to be a little crazy," Raisman said laughing. "Me and Gabby are a little bit nuts."

Just don't tell the kids.