Gabby Douglas feels nervous, nostalgic in gymnastics comeback

Gabby Douglas was so determined not to miss Friday morning's training session before Saturday's Core Hydration Classic that she boarded a private jet before dawn this morning after her scheduled Thursday evening flight out of Dallas was canceled.

Douglas, the 2012 Olympic all-around gold medalist, returned to competition this spring for the first time since the 2016 Rio Games.

She is bidding to make the five-woman team for the Paris Olympics, which will be announced after the Olympic Trials end June 30.

At 28 years old, she can become the oldest U.S. Olympic female gymnast since the 1952 Helsinki Games, according to the OlyMADMen.

After debuting at the American Classic on April 27, Douglas competes in her first televised meet in nearly eight years on Saturday night in Hartford, Connecticut.

The Core Hydration Classic airs live on CNBC and Peacock from 7-9 ET. It also streams on NBCSports.com and the NBC Sports app for CNBC subscribers. Live results will be here.

The meet is followed by the Xfinity U.S. Championships from May 30 to June 2 in Fort Worth, Texas, and, for gymnasts who advance, Olympic Trials from June 27-30 in Minneapolis.

"I'm not going to put a lot of pressure on myself," Douglas said.

Douglas is joined in Saturday's field by the rest of the top hopefuls to make the Olympic team. That includes Simone Biles and Suni Lee, making this the first meet to include three Olympic women's all-around champions.

But Douglas hit an obstacle on Thursday. At about 9:30 p.m. ET, nearly 12 hours before her training session in Hartford, she shared with her 1.5 million Instagram followers that her flight to the competition was canceled and that she was stuck in the Dallas area, where she trains.

She was told there were no flights available until Saturday. Had she waited until then, she would miss Friday's training session and an important opportunity to get comfortable with the competition apparatuses before Saturday night's meet.

Douglas said her mom called her agent, and they were able to get her a seat on a private jet. Douglas said she arrived in Hartford at 6 a.m. on Friday.

"I’m very anxious and nervous," she said after training. "But, honestly, I am so fortunate. ... It's a really fun moment, honestly. I'm grateful."

Douglas, Biles and Lee posed for a photo in front of a balance beam. Douglas joked it was "kind of weird" not seeing her past Olympic teammates Aly Raisman, Laurie Hernandez and Jordyn Wieber.

"I felt so much nostalgia, honestly," she said.

Douglas reflected on her first meet back on April 27, saying her performance wasn't what she had hoped for. She placed 11th in the all-around at the American Classic in Texas against a field that did not include most of the leading Olympic hopefuls.

"I had to give myself a little bit of grace because it's been so long, and it was kind of a little bit of (an) unknown," she said.

After announcing her comeback last year, Douglas said she didn't want to end her gymnastics career with what she called a difficult experience in 2016.

“I was going through so much,” she said last fall, specifically noting what she called a “controversy” over her selection for the five-woman Rio Olympic team.

She was seventh in the all-around at the 2016 Olympic Trials, but Olympic teams do not have to be chosen based off trials results.

Douglas had experience, a strong 2015 season (world all-around silver medal despite a knee injury) and prowess on uneven bars, a relatively weak apparatus for the U.S. at the time.

"I missed gymnastics, and I loved it, and it ended rough for me in 2016, so I didn't want to end on that note," she said Friday. "Regardless of the outcome, I wanted to make sure I end on love and joy instead of hating something that I love."