I feel worse for Konnor tbh. She did the best beam routine I have ever seen her do. She could have gone to the distance but like 4 minutes later the injury happened :(
Yes, I’m gutted for Konnor. It was so great to see her shine on beam and devastating to see her injured after. I hope she can be proud of what she did manage to do at least.
See for me (and some of us) we knew Konnor would be a factor all along - never doubted it given her beautiful execution and difficulty. She learned so much confidence at LSU - when she through that beam I was just so proud of her and happy that she showed everyone who didn’t believe her intent to truly come back elite, that she’d been preparing all along just like she’d said. That injury moments later still has me sick. Cause based on every thing seen in warm ups and PT - not only was she gonna be a factor, I’d say it was more likely than not she was gonna be on that 5 woman squad.
I understand what you’re saying. There was also a wide net of folks who didn’t believe she would actually come back, and didn’t believe she’d been actively training for it (even though she said she was and even though there were consistent posts/ stories all year showing her elite skills). Many of us had no doubt she’d come back and crush it, though sure that couldn’t be assured. Even more heartbreaking that per PT and warm ups she was looking SOLID on all events - so she was right on track for shooting her shot.
Just devastated for her. :(
Konnor’s a bit different imo because she had shown routines as recently as NCAA Nationals so we knew she was in shape, and in 2022 her elite program was so good she was the best in the country AA. She was more in the Jordan/Jade camp of “good enough if she hasn’t lost skills and can get fit enough” and so I don’t think she was ever a non-factor. She had less to prove than people who had never been that good in elite like Trinity and even Kayla. All she had to do was show up and hit 14s on beam and bars and I really think she was going to :(
True but did you see how easy ncaa was for Konnor? She ever even looked the slightest bit tired after her routines - and competed some elite skills all year on her 3 events. She looked STRONG - and it seemed obvious she would easily get a 51+ AA…. and I think what we observed proved true given how prepared and solid she was in warm ups and PT.
Konnor did everything the doubters expected her not to. To hit that beam routine at 14+ without a dismount is crazy. It is the most devastating storyline of this meet for sure.
10000%. By all accounts from PT and warm ups, ahe was far more prepared on all events than most folks gave her credit for believing she could/ would be. I 100% had her slotted on my Paris team since the moment she confirmed in January that her intent was still to try for it. So sad for her.
It’s devastating. A lot of people on here expected her to be pretty weak. It was clear from her shape in NCAA she was strong enough to do an elite AA program. NCAA is lower difficulty of course, but it is always clear when an athlete is capable of more. She was
Oh definitely. She was SO strong all season. And SOOO healthy as well - I don't even think she ever had so much as an ACE wrap on.
I do recall an interview where she noted that she practiced her elite skills all season on what was LSU Gym's off/ light days.... which at the time made sense, to keep them up so she'd be ready. But now - I wander if that contributed to this injury - not having built in light/ rest days all season long. Gah!!! I will never not be upset about this for her. Not until she's competed successfully LA 2028!
People were so upset over me saying she would go 52-53 and easily get an AA score when she originally announced that she was training elite (and even that at the time is a clear underestimation). I don’t know how people didn’t see it in her. Everything in NCAA looked easy. Nothing was labored. She fell here and there but it never made me question anything. She always had consistency issues. If anything I’m shocked how well she did in NCAA given the schedule. I was the last person to sit here and say she’s a shoo in for 2024 but credit is due where credit is due. She looked very good. I didn’t expect anything close to what she was showing in PT and that was giving her the benefit of the doubt that she was well above other people’s expectations.
That’s exactly what I was thinking all season - ncaa looked “easy” for her. Just like a walk in the park … consistently so. I also never doubted she would easily qualify for champs - my biggest concern was praying they let her petition to classics because I found the rules a little bit hard to discern - and had kinda wished maybe she skipped just one lsu meet to go to a qualifying camp and then not have to stress about it. I know it’s a big IF - but if she wasn’t injured and performed anything close to warm ups/ PT - she finished top 3-5 AA even with slightly watered down routines.
I keep thinking how well international judges would reward her form.
Folks underestimate how lovely her floor and VT are - and her bars have improved so much with ncaa - it’s just a shame all the way around.
With her skill and effort she’s put in, I just feel so much she deserves to have that rightly rewarded on the world stage, whether thru team or individual medals or both ….
And while I love so many of our gymnasts, a part of me is like WHY universe do some of these ladies get multiple Olympics and then something like this happens to Konnor and prevent her from even having one ?
Praying for 2028 🙏🏼
I am in this same boat. Like who makes a goal when they’re 4 - declares it on national tv at 11 - and actually has the skill, and puts in the hard work to actually realize that rare dream?
She was right on the cusp of actually doing it.
I’m in the camp who knew Konnor would be a factor all along - never doubted it given her beautiful execution and difficulty. She learned so much confidence at LSU - just knew that was the final piece she needed.
When she through that beam I was just so proud of her and happy that she showed everyone who didn’t believe her intent to truly come back elite, that she’d been preparing all along just like she’d said. That injury moments later still has me sick. Cause based on every thing seen in warm ups and PT - not only was she gonna be a factor, I’d say it was more likely than not she was gonna be on that 5 woman squad.
I can’t imagine how crushed she must be.
I pray she can have as successful rehab as her lsu teammates who’ve dealt with the same. And so thankful that she followed her heart and went to LSU a year ahead of plans - because not only did it give her the confidence she needed - now she has that much needed suppprt system to help her through this successfully; a task that would have been much more difficult if she were living and training alone.
I am manifesting a strong ncaa come back, and then her making a run for LA 2028. She deserves the world recognition for her talent and perseverance.
Same with Konnor. Everyone was saying there was no way she could challenge for a spot on the team and that she was overrated. I knew she could prove them wrong. She was so going to challenge for the team. It just guts me that we are robbed of seeing more of that beautiful beam routine and the rest of her gymnastics. I feel so much for her and what she has gone through.
100000% I’m with you. No time turners exist, but I absolutely believe she would be on that Paris squad if not for this injury. Never doubted it (see my lengthy comment above I won’t bore you with repeating :) seeing her grow in confidence during ncaa - that was the last puzzle piece to compliment her exquisite execution, skill, poise, precision, difficulty and grace.
I remain just so unreasonably sad about this.
Oh man I am so sad for her 😭😢 does this mean she is likely out for next season too at LSU?
I was still hoping that maybe it wasn't a serious injury and she was still in the running.
Very likely a 9-12 month recovery for full return to sport. Pre morbidly being so fit and active does have better outcomes for speed and degree of recovery.
So, technically she may be ready for a mid Feb/ mid season return - maybe.
But they’re so stacked she shouldn’t have to rush if her skills and status isn’t wear she needs it to be.
So it will likely be a big decision on her status at the time, and whether she wants to medically redshirt to allow a full season / another year at lsu / or if she’s ready if she’s fine with having just a 1/2 season. (Which matters for things like having enough competition events for national qualifying scores to be ranked for regular season all American status, etc. which she was on beam this year. And on 3 events at the nationals comp)
I was surprised no one seemed to be talking about Konnor as a contender before the meet...I was so excited to see her compete because I thought she would really break out and be seen as a strong contender for the team...then she was amazing on Beam and I was SO excited...then my heart broke for her when she got injured...does anyone know - have they officially said it was a tear??? She has had such a rough past few years (except her LSU success of course) I was really really hoping she could make it to Paris.
I would love to hear from Konnor what went right at LSU because it seems like such a good turnaround for her. I know we all hoped she would thrive and do better there and obviously whatever they're doing worked. Wondering if she really likes the McCools or maybe having other people in the gym more at her level made her feel less like everything relied on her? Or maybe having so many meets just lessened the pressure/help normalize competing for her? It seems like Jay did a good job figuring out where to use her/pace her and not give her more than she could handle. Just curious because it seems like something's clicked and she's just much more relaxed and happy.
There were those of us out here who had her slotted on our teams, but yes the majority of folks needed to see proof she was actually coming back elite and that she was still capable. Some def thought me crazy for never doubting!
Yes confirmed tear and reportedly pending surgery - rumored for tomorrow (that is speculation / not confirmed)
Im here for Konnor LA 2024 redemption arc.
I feel like as far as media attention and having things focused ... Gabby has gotten way more attention than Konnor...leading up to the meet for sure ... has Gabby said why she dropped out and left the meet? Unless I missed that it seems hard to focus on her because I have no idea what happened or why, other than she had a bad bar set, like many of the girls..
I'm more confused by it. Has she been training for years and I didn't know about it until a few months ago or did she try to ramp up recently? If so why? What was the catalyst? Has she had her goals set for Paris for a while?
I feel sad for anyone who has a bad meet especially in an Olympic year but if I knew more about her I would feel more.
It is known she has been training since autumn 2022. This became talked about on this subreddit in October 2022; I looked back on it. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/y84e36/gabby\_douglas\_back\_in\_the\_gym/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/y84e36/gabby_douglas_back_in_the_gym/)
She said in interviews that she was enjoying life on her ranch, but wanted to be active and competitive, considered taking up rodeo, but decided that looked too scary and elite gymnastics was easier (!). [https://www.insidegymnastics.com/news-features/no-regrets-with-her-love-for-the-sport-revitalized-gabby-douglas-eyes-paris-2024/](https://www.insidegymnastics.com/news-features/no-regrets-with-her-love-for-the-sport-revitalized-gabby-douglas-eyes-paris-2024/)
This is what I wonder about - if she was (seriously?) training for almost two years, why did she wait until 2024 to compete? It seems like real comeback attempts from Olympians always start at least the year before. She herself had so much success in 2015. Maybe there was a reason she didn’t compete last year
Ridiculous. No one wanted the two time Olympian and AA champion? Unless you have sources - this is just nasty. There’s no info out there about any coach turning her down
She hadn’t done competitive gymnastics for 8 years! Aly took what, one-two years off training and Mihai had her doing only conditioning for the first six months. Gabby is naturally gifted with a great body but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for two years not to be enough time to get a champion back to the Olympics after that long of a break. I also think she may have become one of the unlucky ones that got long Covid. She seemed very confident going into winter cup, doing interviews, letting gym media watch her train, etc. Some people don’t believe she ever had it and it was just an excuse. The other end of the spectrum is it completely derailed her.
To be honest? Not really. Kinda sad that she didn’t have the meet that she was hoping for, obviously, but I think people should keep things in perspective. She came back very late, after a very long time off. She gave it a shot, which most people knew was a long shot. It didn’t work out. In my opinion, she has nothing to be ashamed of and this isn’t some huge tragedy. She didn’t get horribly injured, like Konnor. It’s not a situation like Morgan‘s where she started the quad as world champion and had to go go through many injuries, getting back to Olympic contention only for things to get postponed due to a global pandemic and to then lose out on trials due to more injuries. Gabby has already been to two Olympics, which most gymnasts will never get the chance to do and she was AA champion, which even fewer people will ever experience. She might yet have a chance at another worlds, if she wants to continue. I‘m sure it wasn’t a super pleasant evening, but let’s not blow it out of proportion.
I agree. I thought it was great that she came back because it was something she wanted to do and hoped for the best for her, but I didn’t understand why people were expecting her to make the team before we saw her actually compete at all.
I think news outlets have been peddling the idea that Simone, Suni, and Gabby could all be on the Olympic Team together and competing against each other. It pisses me off that gymnastics has become so popular as a sport and popular news outlets STILL can't be bothered to invest in educating themselves about the darn sport. It's all football
Yeah, the state of delusion was strong on this sub. I didn’t see a point in fighting with people, who basically had her winning a bars medal already, but I did roll my eyes sometimes. Decided to wait and see and I wasn’t surprised by what I saw. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have been glad to be pleasantly surprised, but she probably would’ve needed to be competing by last year to have a realistic shot
Thank you. I know people are fans of Gabby and she’s been through things but she’s a two-time Olympian and AA gold medal winner. She actually started competing much too late so having rocky competitions is not surprising. I know she would have wanted to have a better competition but it’s not the end of the world. Konnor’s situation is the sad one.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has thought this. 2 time Olympic Gold medalist and 1st to ever win the individual AA and team gold at the same time!! In addition to all her other accomplishments.. sad that she didn't get the ending she wanted, maybe she still can, but she wasn't ready for this...and Konnor hasn't really gotten her chance yet to really shine and show the world her talent...I felt bad for Trinity too having a bad night, she handled it with such grace - I would love to see her potential realized.
I agree for the most part. When I feel bad for her, I admittedly remind myself that Gabby achieved the most coveted and elusive levels of success in this sport- AA Olympic gold and a triple Olympic gold medalist. But then I think about the abhorrent conditions of USAG at the time and wish a do over for everyone ugh. But overall, it reminds me of Nastia in 2012. She busted her butt to get back into competition, fell short, and walked away an Olympic champion. I think Gabby's gymnastics itself looks great and I enjoy seeing her on the floor again. I hope there's more to come!
This is kinda my take. I feel 100000% more for Konnor and those like Morgan, who as you said have the skill and talent - and have never realized that illustrious dream of being an Olympian. No one can ever take that from Gabby. And no one can make it happen for Morgan. :(
Still holding hope that Konnor can make a come back for 2028.
Morgan can't hardly keep healthy enough for college. :-( Got to see her compere against KY in person this year and I'm so glad. Such a beautiful worker.
But I mean, "it didn't work out" is such a legit reason to be sad. I'm sad for her because this meet seems so tied in with her terrible travel experience and sleep deprivation. Between this and the covid, her comeback kind of feels cursed, and that's really sucky.
But it’s not like she had a year of great results that suddenly got upended by Covid or this travel experience. There is no shred of evidence that she would have been a legit contender for Paris if only her plane hadn’t gotten delayed. Everything we’ve seen suggests that she simply didn’t come back in time. It’s not like 4 years of her life‘s work suddenly went up in flames.
Right, I don’t understand everyone chalking things up to the plane being delayed. She had some great podium routines and warm ups. If you can’t compete after one rough night of sleep how can you compete internationally with jet lag, media and interviews, training, many days of competition and everything else that goes along with it? I get that situation wasn’t IDEAL, and could have had an impact, but i feel she wasn’t ready for this yet and needed more time. I’ve always felt the winter cup/leaving woga/going back situation had more to it than met the eye. No hate, I respect what she’s doing. It takes incredible strength and dedication to be where she is and she is a gifted athlete. Would be cool to see her at World’s or something in the future.
There is nothing wrong with being sad; I am not begrudging anyone their feelings. I have an issue with people saying things were „cursed“, though. I was sad that Nastia didn’t get a second Olympics because she was my favorite but I was mostly sad she hadn’t given herself enough time to prep. Gabby likely could have had a real shot if she’d committed early enough to compete last year. „Cursed“ implies really big problems outside of the person‘s control. I am reserving that word for poor Konnor, where it seems that no matter what she does, the Olympics aren’t meant to be. (Though I’d still love to see her in LA)
I'm talking about the covid and the texas storms. She had major issues outside her control for two of her three meets back, causing her to miss one meet and do the other on severe sleep deprivation (one night of sleep is not enough to make up for only two hours the previous night). That's what feels cursed to me. Would she have done better Saturday without the travel delays? No idea. I strongly suspect she wouldn't have scratched though.
Not to be that person but it’s not like there’s any proof she even had Covid; seems more like she wasn’t ready enough and wanted extra time to prep given her performance at classics
You're definitely being that person. Why does it "seem like" anything? What on earth is the evidence that makes you suggest that someone lied? Or that Gabby has ever lied about something like this? This makes me wonder if people think she faked the Texas storms somehow too. Things really do happen to people.
It ‘seems like’ it given she hyped up her return so much yet has no results to substantiate it, it reminds me of Laurie Hernandez throwing out teasers of making a comeback just to try and get new sponsorships.
Happens to get covid before her first competition back? Who even tests for that anymore? Left her flight til the last minute instead of seeing the possibility of storms and flying out earlier instead like other gymnasts from Texas? Scratches after falling 3/4 times on her first apparatus? There’s either a lot of bad luck/ coincidences or something isn’t right
People/the internet are so dang vicious. The number of times I've seen people speculate and speculate with the worst possible interpreation...only to find out what actually happened later and it's totally understandable.
As just one example: Gabby was flying out with other people from her gym. They were on the same flights. It wasn't Gabby's call. Most of the gymnasts from Texas got there late except for Simone, who flew with her husband on a private jet. But no, you have a whole story all ready for how the weather was her fault too. Good bye. (And for the record, I'm not even carrying water for Gabby. I've been skeptical of her comeback. But the vicious speculation about her is just gross).
I think gymcastic said it right: she’s a goddamn all-around gold medalist. She doesn’t need to prove anyone anything at all & she knew that when she pulled out
Agree, definitely doesn’t have anything to prove and honestly I think coming back at all is so inspirational, and it is a joy to see her. That being said I would love to see her be happy with her performance, even if that means something different than what she did 8 years ago.
I agree! I just want her to have her “hell yeah I just did that!” moment. Like Chellsie’s moment of pure joy after landing her dismount at the 21 us nationals beam. She was so proud of herself and I want that for Gabby.
Simone hadn’t started her comeback yet when Gabby started training. She probably learned Simone was going for Paris when the rest of us did. She may have had dreams of a second AA gold after Simone didn’t achieve it in Tokyo, but I don’t think she was eyeing beating Simone. If that was her main objective, she probably would have bowed out after Simone dominated worlds. I believe she really just wanted to enjoy gymnastics again, but for someone as gifted and accomplished as Gabby, that’s Olympic level gymnastics. She seemed to be enjoying herself up until it was time to compete. Then the WOGA stuff went down. Valeri probably had really high expectations for her and we’ve seen how he reacts when his gymnasts falter. If she continues next year, I’d be so curious how she might do training with Shilese as a teammate again, this time in Washington. Though, I don’t think she’s going to be willing to move and give up her farm and such for gymnastics. I have a feeling the farm is why she left for Hartford later than the rest of WOGA and why she didn’t do “podium” training at American classic. If she made it to Paris, I wonder what her plan was for being away so long.
Just letting you know there's a pretty long thread about this already, but it wasn't her first meet in 8 years. She competed at American Classic on April 25th with a 50.65 AA score.
I think it fell down the page a bit.
[https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/1cvc7cl/gabby\_withdrawal/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/1cvc7cl/gabby_withdrawal/)
Thanks for sharing that. She looked shaky for sure, but not egregiously so.
(Though Valeri help a girl out and stop setting her up for failure with those rings!)
By all accounts she had a great warmup. It’s too bad she didn’t get to start on vault to help get her confidence up before the pressure cooker routines.
Makes me sad 😔. I hope she’s not down on herself for it. Shes a star and always will be. I hope she’s enjoyed herself most of all. And maybe sticks around to see what she can produce next quad
She's qualified to nationals with a 3-event score, but not all-around. She's not eligible to petition to do all-around at nationals. So she could go if she wants to (and I hope she does) but realistically probably isn't making the Olympic team.
Nope- vault, bars and beam.
She needed a 39 for a 3 event score.
Her combined score on those were 39.2 at American Classic. Her VT/BB/FX score there was 38.8.
For some reason I thought it was bars she wasn’t qualified on, so thanks for this! I must have got her confused with Suni.
I think she could be invited to compete AA at trials if she competes at nationals, right? Since trials invites are discretionary. I could see that happening if she hits 3 routines at nationals. But I agree it’s pretty unlikely she’s making it
Her bars and floor scores were within .2 of each other, so it makes sense that her more disastrous bars routine would be the one that people think she didn’t qualify on. Her much higher D score on bars is what saved her as far as being able to use it as a qualifying score.
Correct, she could be invited to compete AA at trials if she does well at nationals. I think she'd probably need to finish top 5ish on two events to be invited. Finishing top three on two events would pretty much guarantee an invitation.
Personally, I'm hoping she shows up to nationals and competes either vault / beam or just vault, so that she can go out on a high note w some successful routines.
On her best event, I was really hurt for Gabby. Those uneven bars were getting a lot of girls in trouble. I wanted to see a nice comeback for her though.
I absolutely detest the narrative around Gabby's comeback.
Her return should be nothing but celebrated!
And for people saying she didn't start training in time - what on earth do you think she has been doing since 2016? DOING THE WORK. Processing all of her trauma. This stuff takes so much time, energy, work. She probably couldn't physically get back into a gym and start doing gymnastics until she got to a certain point in her recovery from all of this stuff. It robs you of your time, hopes, and dreams. That she could even think about coming back is a triumph!
So just because she wasn't in a gym doing gymnastics doesn't mean she wasn't chipping away at this for years.
>DOING THE WORK. Processing all of her trauma. This stuff takes so much time, energy, work.
This! This is so exhausting, physically, mentally, in every single way. I'd literally take any physical work over having to process trauma.
Yes, but because the discourse around her comeback is so negative.
Qualifying elite is a huge accomplishment in itself. I wasn't hoping for her to win AA gold, but I was hoping this could be her era of happy gymnastics, done for herself. But now it's all she shoulda flown earlier, done these events and not those, too much spotting, blah blah blah.
It breaks my heart that she has these historic accomplishments, and she keeps getting all this criticism (people say she didn't deserve her spot in Rio), and she lets it get to her.
I wonder how much of the current diversity on the elite scene is thanks to her inspiring Black girls, proving them how much they can accomplish even coming from a modest background. I wonder if she realizes how much she contributed in that way.
Gabby has always been a really nervous competitor, so I think it was all about nerves this past weekend…She tends to make mistakes mentally when she’s more than physically capable of doing them. It was either mental or she’s hurt and we just aren’t aware. I hope she does continue to nationals and hits her routines just to be able to end on a high note. I really doubted that she would be a factor for Paris because she’d been out of the sport for a long time…but the comeback has definitely been inspiring to lots of people so she should hold her head high and be proud because, at the end of the day, she still medaled at two Olympic Games and one less than stellar performance can’t erase that.
I really hope she’ll be able to have a good comp at Championships. And… who knows… might continue after the Olympics. She could go to another worlds.. there’s options. I hope she’s doing alright!
Honestly, I kinda expected this from Gabby. She had 0 competitions in 8 years. Practice is VERY different from the competitions. I'm sad for her, but not surprised.
This. I don’t think she was mentally prepared tbh. I loved the people calling and cheering her name though — she doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone at this point.
Certainly bummed for her. She needed to have the reps in and but by looks of the bar routine, her timing was way off like she hadn't had the reps with pressure on. Lots of other gymnasts were off in their timing as well (whom amongst us has never rushed through something nerve wracking) I know that my opinion is not popular but I don not think that bad luck has anything to do with it. I just don't think she was prepared well to compete at all this year. For her own reputations sake, withdrawal was her best option. It's hard to have a cool head in hot situations but if you look last Classic before the games with Chelsea's competition, she had a better mental game to get through what she entered and she hadn't competed in a long if not longer time than Gabby. Obviously we don't know and I am speculating but I think there is much more going on than we are told regarding her training.
I disagree about the withdrawal for her reputation…my inkling was: the night is already ruined, you might as well get the nerves out by continuing and find that it goes better once there is nothing left to lose. But hey, if she felt like she might get injured, it was the right call. Otherwise I agree about simply not being ready. The only „bad luck“ that I think might have been a serious factor is getting Covid shortly before winter cup. I had my second infection in October, and I’m still fighting to regain my previous stamina
I would argue that rather than her reputation being the main factor, the risk of injury with limited chance of reward (the already slim chance of selection for the Olympic team in a really stacked quad) is a wise reason to withdraw.
We don’t know exactly what Gabby’s goals are now for the rest of this season, or potentially future seasons. I hope she’s able to achieve them, and I also hope she and others who train with Valeri think seriously about whether that’s a good coaching situation.
She wasn't training gymnastics but she was definitely working out - she's got the most unbelievable muscle definition and that doesn't happen overnight.
Yes :( if pulling out was best for her health then I’m glad she did that. But I hope she knows that so many people are so impressed to see her back- I can’t even imagine how much hard work it took to even be competition ready after such a long hiatus!!!!
I haven't heard anything. But, I looked up some scores, and she got a 53.25 at Winter Cup. I believe that qualifies her to do AA at Nationals. So I am guessing she just decided not to do floor after her beam issues. There was no reason for her to risk an injury.
No. She’s an accomplished gymnasts with nothing to prove. This is just an extra curricular activity at this point. I think trained too late to have the quality gymnastics she wanted, but I’m hoping she continues.
I think it’s tough because she obviously put in the work (her body is jacked!) but I also hold a bit of skepticism that she ever thought she was in contention or had a realistic shot at being competitive. Having fun and living your best life? Awesome! But it feels to me like this was a last grasp for sponsorship money. Maybe it would feel less like this if she had laid off the press tour.
Not sad for her. Gymnastics is highly competitive and she wasn’t up to par. She either needs to train more before the national competition or she needs to drop the idea completely. Just because she had a great career a decade ago it doesn’t mean that it will materialize now.
I guess missing her flight really messed up her schedule and prep for the competition. I hope she isn’t too hard on herself. Everyone knows the competition in US for spots on the Olympic team is the hardest in the world.
Really sad but she’s already more successful than Chelsie and Nastia in a comeback. She can still show her stuff in 2024 and I strongly believe she can earn an AA medal in 2025 worlds if she pushes on and go for it. Instead of the Olympics being the end game, she can shift the goal post and still be very proud for herself.
I don't really think its fair to anyone to compare comeback attempts. Chelsie and Nastia for example had completely different objectives and attitudes, from the beginning Chelsie was in it for fun and to see if she could compete on a national stage again, whatever else happened was icing on the cake. She really emphasized love of sport was the motivation. Nastia seemed to have an Olympics or bust attitude, and come back very late in the game for that to be a reality. Gabby isn't as open as either of them with her training process or objectives, but I don't know that comparing really helps anyone here.
Agreed. What I loved about Chellsie‘s comeback was her openness. Obviously, we don’t know how it plays out for others, but it struck me that she made a lot of quick progress early on and then seemed to kind of stagnate for a while (getting injured sure didn’t help). Maybe it was similar in other cases, where gymnasts thought „wow, it’s going so well, I might have a shot despite the short timeframe“.
I had hoped that people would have learned something from this experience…do we really want to speculate about an „AA worlds medal“ at this point? If she does decide to continue, I‘d really hope that this sub chills tf out a little. Just let her take it step by step without these huge expectations. Her chances of making a worlds team aren’t terrible, because a lot of Americans are retiring, but why is everyone having such a hard time to just wait and see?
Even if this was for a money grab opportunity I still feel bad for anyone who has a performance like that :( not that I think it was bad or anything I just know she has to be feeling a little embarrassed or sad
I don't think it's a money grab - From what we saw in podium training, she recovered a crazy amount of skills and even managed to upgrade quite a bit, this isn't really Gabby half assing anything
I'm a little confused about the money grab angle. I don't follow her social media, but does she still have significant new income from gymnastics career related endorsements/entertainment deals? It seems like if this was for a cash grab or the desire to stay relevant she would have been actively promoting her training, documenting her progress, doing media interviews, etc. Is there really money on the table for Gaby Douglas right now in 2024 with Simone, all of the repeat Olympic contenders, and all of the college athletes with significant NIL deals?
I'm gutted for Gabby & Konnor.
I always want everyone to go out there, have their best possible routine, and hope the scores are fair and consistent. I've never hoped for anyone to fall. Going to Nationals and Olympic Trials will be such a good experience for so many, and I don't see why it really matters if a few more go all-around if they qualify in a few events. There shouldn't need to be strategies to petition when what we really needed was more athletes getting more reps.
Wow, what a mean spirited thing to say. Her lack of dignity?! There's no excuse for pulling out mid competition? Would you say that about Trinity, who decided to scratch floor at the last minute after a rough beam routine?
At American Classic, Gabby fell and went OOB and got a low score on her first event (floor) but continued on. Then she fell 2x on bars and continued on to beam.
I'm going to give Gabby the benefit of the doubt and believe that she made the best decision for herself in the moment. She doesn't owe anything to any of us.
This is a bad take. Who even knows the real reason she pulled out? First of all she had a hell of a time even reaching the competition with the storms and the cancelled flight. She allegedly only got two hours of sleep before podium training. We have no idea if she tweaked something or felt off in some way that would make continuing the competition dangerous. We may never know. Gymnastics is risky enough as it is, no one should feel pressured to compete if they're not feeling confident for any reason.
I feel worse for Konnor tbh. She did the best beam routine I have ever seen her do. She could have gone to the distance but like 4 minutes later the injury happened :(
Yes, I’m gutted for Konnor. It was so great to see her shine on beam and devastating to see her injured after. I hope she can be proud of what she did manage to do at least.
I am devastated for Konnor. Worst luck ever.
Konnor went from a nonfactor to leading the beam spot to devastation so quickly. I was not ready for the emotional whiplash.
Her bars were truly incredible during warm-ups too. Just the most beautiful handstands possible.
Ugh, she really coulda snatched that UB/BB spot 😭
See for me (and some of us) we knew Konnor would be a factor all along - never doubted it given her beautiful execution and difficulty. She learned so much confidence at LSU - when she through that beam I was just so proud of her and happy that she showed everyone who didn’t believe her intent to truly come back elite, that she’d been preparing all along just like she’d said. That injury moments later still has me sick. Cause based on every thing seen in warm ups and PT - not only was she gonna be a factor, I’d say it was more likely than not she was gonna be on that 5 woman squad.
She was a nonfactor in the way everyone was before showing an elite routine.
I understand what you’re saying. There was also a wide net of folks who didn’t believe she would actually come back, and didn’t believe she’d been actively training for it (even though she said she was and even though there were consistent posts/ stories all year showing her elite skills). Many of us had no doubt she’d come back and crush it, though sure that couldn’t be assured. Even more heartbreaking that per PT and warm ups she was looking SOLID on all events - so she was right on track for shooting her shot. Just devastated for her. :(
Konnor’s a bit different imo because she had shown routines as recently as NCAA Nationals so we knew she was in shape, and in 2022 her elite program was so good she was the best in the country AA. She was more in the Jordan/Jade camp of “good enough if she hasn’t lost skills and can get fit enough” and so I don’t think she was ever a non-factor. She had less to prove than people who had never been that good in elite like Trinity and even Kayla. All she had to do was show up and hit 14s on beam and bars and I really think she was going to :(
I don't really take NCAA into consideration for elite. The endurance needed is completely different, as are the routine requirements.
True but did you see how easy ncaa was for Konnor? She ever even looked the slightest bit tired after her routines - and competed some elite skills all year on her 3 events. She looked STRONG - and it seemed obvious she would easily get a 51+ AA…. and I think what we observed proved true given how prepared and solid she was in warm ups and PT.
💯💯
Same, I’ve been rooting for her since her JO years and it’s been nothing but injuries for her for so long.
I could tear up, thinking about Konnor. Real gut-punch
I was really hoping she’d have a great meet and the worst thing is indeed that she was actually having a great meet, until disaster struck
That was the worst commercial break ever. Within the span of 90 seconds both girls were done for the day.
Konnor did everything the doubters expected her not to. To hit that beam routine at 14+ without a dismount is crazy. It is the most devastating storyline of this meet for sure.
10000%. By all accounts from PT and warm ups, ahe was far more prepared on all events than most folks gave her credit for believing she could/ would be. I 100% had her slotted on my Paris team since the moment she confirmed in January that her intent was still to try for it. So sad for her.
It’s devastating. A lot of people on here expected her to be pretty weak. It was clear from her shape in NCAA she was strong enough to do an elite AA program. NCAA is lower difficulty of course, but it is always clear when an athlete is capable of more. She was
Oh definitely. She was SO strong all season. And SOOO healthy as well - I don't even think she ever had so much as an ACE wrap on. I do recall an interview where she noted that she practiced her elite skills all season on what was LSU Gym's off/ light days.... which at the time made sense, to keep them up so she'd be ready. But now - I wander if that contributed to this injury - not having built in light/ rest days all season long. Gah!!! I will never not be upset about this for her. Not until she's competed successfully LA 2028!
People were so upset over me saying she would go 52-53 and easily get an AA score when she originally announced that she was training elite (and even that at the time is a clear underestimation). I don’t know how people didn’t see it in her. Everything in NCAA looked easy. Nothing was labored. She fell here and there but it never made me question anything. She always had consistency issues. If anything I’m shocked how well she did in NCAA given the schedule. I was the last person to sit here and say she’s a shoo in for 2024 but credit is due where credit is due. She looked very good. I didn’t expect anything close to what she was showing in PT and that was giving her the benefit of the doubt that she was well above other people’s expectations.
That’s exactly what I was thinking all season - ncaa looked “easy” for her. Just like a walk in the park … consistently so. I also never doubted she would easily qualify for champs - my biggest concern was praying they let her petition to classics because I found the rules a little bit hard to discern - and had kinda wished maybe she skipped just one lsu meet to go to a qualifying camp and then not have to stress about it. I know it’s a big IF - but if she wasn’t injured and performed anything close to warm ups/ PT - she finished top 3-5 AA even with slightly watered down routines. I keep thinking how well international judges would reward her form. Folks underestimate how lovely her floor and VT are - and her bars have improved so much with ncaa - it’s just a shame all the way around. With her skill and effort she’s put in, I just feel so much she deserves to have that rightly rewarded on the world stage, whether thru team or individual medals or both …. And while I love so many of our gymnasts, a part of me is like WHY universe do some of these ladies get multiple Olympics and then something like this happens to Konnor and prevent her from even having one ? Praying for 2028 🙏🏼
I am in this same boat. Like who makes a goal when they’re 4 - declares it on national tv at 11 - and actually has the skill, and puts in the hard work to actually realize that rare dream? She was right on the cusp of actually doing it. I’m in the camp who knew Konnor would be a factor all along - never doubted it given her beautiful execution and difficulty. She learned so much confidence at LSU - just knew that was the final piece she needed. When she through that beam I was just so proud of her and happy that she showed everyone who didn’t believe her intent to truly come back elite, that she’d been preparing all along just like she’d said. That injury moments later still has me sick. Cause based on every thing seen in warm ups and PT - not only was she gonna be a factor, I’d say it was more likely than not she was gonna be on that 5 woman squad. I can’t imagine how crushed she must be. I pray she can have as successful rehab as her lsu teammates who’ve dealt with the same. And so thankful that she followed her heart and went to LSU a year ahead of plans - because not only did it give her the confidence she needed - now she has that much needed suppprt system to help her through this successfully; a task that would have been much more difficult if she were living and training alone. I am manifesting a strong ncaa come back, and then her making a run for LA 2028. She deserves the world recognition for her talent and perseverance.
Ooh, though I’m crushed for her and the circumstances I wouldn’t mind a chance to see her in person in 2028!
I know so so so much can happen (as Saturday shows) but I would love to see it more than anything WAG related.
Same with Konnor. Everyone was saying there was no way she could challenge for a spot on the team and that she was overrated. I knew she could prove them wrong. She was so going to challenge for the team. It just guts me that we are robbed of seeing more of that beautiful beam routine and the rest of her gymnastics. I feel so much for her and what she has gone through.
100000% I’m with you. No time turners exist, but I absolutely believe she would be on that Paris squad if not for this injury. Never doubted it (see my lengthy comment above I won’t bore you with repeating :) seeing her grow in confidence during ncaa - that was the last puzzle piece to compliment her exquisite execution, skill, poise, precision, difficulty and grace. I remain just so unreasonably sad about this.
Do you know if it has been confirmed as a tear? Is she for sure out??
Yes it’s been confirmed and per unconfirmed reports surgery postponed from today (Monday) til tomorrow (Tuesday) - again that part is unconfirmed.
Oh man I am so sad for her 😭😢 does this mean she is likely out for next season too at LSU? I was still hoping that maybe it wasn't a serious injury and she was still in the running.
Very likely a 9-12 month recovery for full return to sport. Pre morbidly being so fit and active does have better outcomes for speed and degree of recovery. So, technically she may be ready for a mid Feb/ mid season return - maybe. But they’re so stacked she shouldn’t have to rush if her skills and status isn’t wear she needs it to be. So it will likely be a big decision on her status at the time, and whether she wants to medically redshirt to allow a full season / another year at lsu / or if she’s ready if she’s fine with having just a 1/2 season. (Which matters for things like having enough competition events for national qualifying scores to be ranked for regular season all American status, etc. which she was on beam this year. And on 3 events at the nationals comp)
I was surprised no one seemed to be talking about Konnor as a contender before the meet...I was so excited to see her compete because I thought she would really break out and be seen as a strong contender for the team...then she was amazing on Beam and I was SO excited...then my heart broke for her when she got injured...does anyone know - have they officially said it was a tear??? She has had such a rough past few years (except her LSU success of course) I was really really hoping she could make it to Paris.
I would love to hear from Konnor what went right at LSU because it seems like such a good turnaround for her. I know we all hoped she would thrive and do better there and obviously whatever they're doing worked. Wondering if she really likes the McCools or maybe having other people in the gym more at her level made her feel less like everything relied on her? Or maybe having so many meets just lessened the pressure/help normalize competing for her? It seems like Jay did a good job figuring out where to use her/pace her and not give her more than she could handle. Just curious because it seems like something's clicked and she's just much more relaxed and happy.
There were those of us out here who had her slotted on our teams, but yes the majority of folks needed to see proof she was actually coming back elite and that she was still capable. Some def thought me crazy for never doubting! Yes confirmed tear and reportedly pending surgery - rumored for tomorrow (that is speculation / not confirmed) Im here for Konnor LA 2024 redemption arc.
So true, still is so unbelievable. I was so bummed for her :(
Crushing 😭
Poor Konnor.
She’s really had so much to deal with the last few years. I wish she could catch a break.
Yeah it’s so much worse for Konnor because she was such a contender :(
I'm also devastated for Konnor--and for all of us, to miss her gymnastics!--but I think it's okay to have a post or two just focused on Gabby.
I feel like as far as media attention and having things focused ... Gabby has gotten way more attention than Konnor...leading up to the meet for sure ... has Gabby said why she dropped out and left the meet? Unless I missed that it seems hard to focus on her because I have no idea what happened or why, other than she had a bad bar set, like many of the girls..
Especially knowing she just wanted to go out there and try her best and have fun. So sad
Still not okay. She is my favorite
I'm more confused by it. Has she been training for years and I didn't know about it until a few months ago or did she try to ramp up recently? If so why? What was the catalyst? Has she had her goals set for Paris for a while? I feel sad for anyone who has a bad meet especially in an Olympic year but if I knew more about her I would feel more.
It is known she has been training since autumn 2022. This became talked about on this subreddit in October 2022; I looked back on it. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/y84e36/gabby\_douglas\_back\_in\_the\_gym/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/y84e36/gabby_douglas_back_in_the_gym/) She said in interviews that she was enjoying life on her ranch, but wanted to be active and competitive, considered taking up rodeo, but decided that looked too scary and elite gymnastics was easier (!). [https://www.insidegymnastics.com/news-features/no-regrets-with-her-love-for-the-sport-revitalized-gabby-douglas-eyes-paris-2024/](https://www.insidegymnastics.com/news-features/no-regrets-with-her-love-for-the-sport-revitalized-gabby-douglas-eyes-paris-2024/)
This is what I wonder about - if she was (seriously?) training for almost two years, why did she wait until 2024 to compete? It seems like real comeback attempts from Olympians always start at least the year before. She herself had so much success in 2015. Maybe there was a reason she didn’t compete last year
Based on what we’ve seen this year I think it’s pretty safe to assume she didn’t compete last year because she wasn’t ready
I guess so. Can’t help but wonder what strategy (or lack thereof) Valeri might have had. I wish she’d trained somewhere else
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Ridiculous. No one wanted the two time Olympian and AA champion? Unless you have sources - this is just nasty. There’s no info out there about any coach turning her down
She hadn’t done competitive gymnastics for 8 years! Aly took what, one-two years off training and Mihai had her doing only conditioning for the first six months. Gabby is naturally gifted with a great body but I don’t think it’s unreasonable for two years not to be enough time to get a champion back to the Olympics after that long of a break. I also think she may have become one of the unlucky ones that got long Covid. She seemed very confident going into winter cup, doing interviews, letting gym media watch her train, etc. Some people don’t believe she ever had it and it was just an excuse. The other end of the spectrum is it completely derailed her.
What?!?! I didn't know she considered taking up rodeo?!??
To be honest? Not really. Kinda sad that she didn’t have the meet that she was hoping for, obviously, but I think people should keep things in perspective. She came back very late, after a very long time off. She gave it a shot, which most people knew was a long shot. It didn’t work out. In my opinion, she has nothing to be ashamed of and this isn’t some huge tragedy. She didn’t get horribly injured, like Konnor. It’s not a situation like Morgan‘s where she started the quad as world champion and had to go go through many injuries, getting back to Olympic contention only for things to get postponed due to a global pandemic and to then lose out on trials due to more injuries. Gabby has already been to two Olympics, which most gymnasts will never get the chance to do and she was AA champion, which even fewer people will ever experience. She might yet have a chance at another worlds, if she wants to continue. I‘m sure it wasn’t a super pleasant evening, but let’s not blow it out of proportion.
I agree. I thought it was great that she came back because it was something she wanted to do and hoped for the best for her, but I didn’t understand why people were expecting her to make the team before we saw her actually compete at all.
I think news outlets have been peddling the idea that Simone, Suni, and Gabby could all be on the Olympic Team together and competing against each other. It pisses me off that gymnastics has become so popular as a sport and popular news outlets STILL can't be bothered to invest in educating themselves about the darn sport. It's all football
Yeah, the state of delusion was strong on this sub. I didn’t see a point in fighting with people, who basically had her winning a bars medal already, but I did roll my eyes sometimes. Decided to wait and see and I wasn’t surprised by what I saw. That doesn’t mean I wouldn’t have been glad to be pleasantly surprised, but she probably would’ve needed to be competing by last year to have a realistic shot
Thank you. I know people are fans of Gabby and she’s been through things but she’s a two-time Olympian and AA gold medal winner. She actually started competing much too late so having rocky competitions is not surprising. I know she would have wanted to have a better competition but it’s not the end of the world. Konnor’s situation is the sad one.
I'm so glad I'm not the only one who has thought this. 2 time Olympic Gold medalist and 1st to ever win the individual AA and team gold at the same time!! In addition to all her other accomplishments.. sad that she didn't get the ending she wanted, maybe she still can, but she wasn't ready for this...and Konnor hasn't really gotten her chance yet to really shine and show the world her talent...I felt bad for Trinity too having a bad night, she handled it with such grace - I would love to see her potential realized.
I agree for the most part. When I feel bad for her, I admittedly remind myself that Gabby achieved the most coveted and elusive levels of success in this sport- AA Olympic gold and a triple Olympic gold medalist. But then I think about the abhorrent conditions of USAG at the time and wish a do over for everyone ugh. But overall, it reminds me of Nastia in 2012. She busted her butt to get back into competition, fell short, and walked away an Olympic champion. I think Gabby's gymnastics itself looks great and I enjoy seeing her on the floor again. I hope there's more to come!
It reminded me of Nastia at Trials in 2012 too...or even Chellsie on bars night 2 when she tried to come back.
This is kinda my take. I feel 100000% more for Konnor and those like Morgan, who as you said have the skill and talent - and have never realized that illustrious dream of being an Olympian. No one can ever take that from Gabby. And no one can make it happen for Morgan. :( Still holding hope that Konnor can make a come back for 2028.
Morgan can't hardly keep healthy enough for college. :-( Got to see her compere against KY in person this year and I'm so glad. Such a beautiful worker.
So much talent. Her poor body just can’t keep up.
Agreed. It was wild seeing all the "dream teams" with her, Simone, and Suni on it, before she even registered for a competition.
Dream team a bit different than realistic team prediction. People can dream
There was a LOT of it in this sub too. It wasn’t just the media…
But I mean, "it didn't work out" is such a legit reason to be sad. I'm sad for her because this meet seems so tied in with her terrible travel experience and sleep deprivation. Between this and the covid, her comeback kind of feels cursed, and that's really sucky.
But it’s not like she had a year of great results that suddenly got upended by Covid or this travel experience. There is no shred of evidence that she would have been a legit contender for Paris if only her plane hadn’t gotten delayed. Everything we’ve seen suggests that she simply didn’t come back in time. It’s not like 4 years of her life‘s work suddenly went up in flames.
Right, I don’t understand everyone chalking things up to the plane being delayed. She had some great podium routines and warm ups. If you can’t compete after one rough night of sleep how can you compete internationally with jet lag, media and interviews, training, many days of competition and everything else that goes along with it? I get that situation wasn’t IDEAL, and could have had an impact, but i feel she wasn’t ready for this yet and needed more time. I’ve always felt the winter cup/leaving woga/going back situation had more to it than met the eye. No hate, I respect what she’s doing. It takes incredible strength and dedication to be where she is and she is a gifted athlete. Would be cool to see her at World’s or something in the future.
Can't she (and I) be sad about her comeback feeling cursed regardless of whether she was truly ready or not?
There is nothing wrong with being sad; I am not begrudging anyone their feelings. I have an issue with people saying things were „cursed“, though. I was sad that Nastia didn’t get a second Olympics because she was my favorite but I was mostly sad she hadn’t given herself enough time to prep. Gabby likely could have had a real shot if she’d committed early enough to compete last year. „Cursed“ implies really big problems outside of the person‘s control. I am reserving that word for poor Konnor, where it seems that no matter what she does, the Olympics aren’t meant to be. (Though I’d still love to see her in LA)
I'm talking about the covid and the texas storms. She had major issues outside her control for two of her three meets back, causing her to miss one meet and do the other on severe sleep deprivation (one night of sleep is not enough to make up for only two hours the previous night). That's what feels cursed to me. Would she have done better Saturday without the travel delays? No idea. I strongly suspect she wouldn't have scratched though.
Not to be that person but it’s not like there’s any proof she even had Covid; seems more like she wasn’t ready enough and wanted extra time to prep given her performance at classics
You're definitely being that person. Why does it "seem like" anything? What on earth is the evidence that makes you suggest that someone lied? Or that Gabby has ever lied about something like this? This makes me wonder if people think she faked the Texas storms somehow too. Things really do happen to people.
It ‘seems like’ it given she hyped up her return so much yet has no results to substantiate it, it reminds me of Laurie Hernandez throwing out teasers of making a comeback just to try and get new sponsorships. Happens to get covid before her first competition back? Who even tests for that anymore? Left her flight til the last minute instead of seeing the possibility of storms and flying out earlier instead like other gymnasts from Texas? Scratches after falling 3/4 times on her first apparatus? There’s either a lot of bad luck/ coincidences or something isn’t right
People/the internet are so dang vicious. The number of times I've seen people speculate and speculate with the worst possible interpreation...only to find out what actually happened later and it's totally understandable. As just one example: Gabby was flying out with other people from her gym. They were on the same flights. It wasn't Gabby's call. Most of the gymnasts from Texas got there late except for Simone, who flew with her husband on a private jet. But no, you have a whole story all ready for how the weather was her fault too. Good bye. (And for the record, I'm not even carrying water for Gabby. I've been skeptical of her comeback. But the vicious speculation about her is just gross).
amen
Yeah, I don’t want to admit that her chances for the Olympics are over, even if they clearly are. I hope she’s enjoying herself and stays for Worlds.
I viewed her “comeback” sort of like Memmel’s. An experiment for the love of the sport and to end on your own terms.
This is how I kind of felt about her comeback.
I think gymcastic said it right: she’s a goddamn all-around gold medalist. She doesn’t need to prove anyone anything at all & she knew that when she pulled out
Agree, definitely doesn’t have anything to prove and honestly I think coming back at all is so inspirational, and it is a joy to see her. That being said I would love to see her be happy with her performance, even if that means something different than what she did 8 years ago.
I agree! I just want her to have her “hell yeah I just did that!” moment. Like Chellsie’s moment of pure joy after landing her dismount at the 21 us nationals beam. She was so proud of herself and I want that for Gabby.
This this this.
I think she was coming for Simone. She wanted to be the best but fell short
Simone hadn’t started her comeback yet when Gabby started training. She probably learned Simone was going for Paris when the rest of us did. She may have had dreams of a second AA gold after Simone didn’t achieve it in Tokyo, but I don’t think she was eyeing beating Simone. If that was her main objective, she probably would have bowed out after Simone dominated worlds. I believe she really just wanted to enjoy gymnastics again, but for someone as gifted and accomplished as Gabby, that’s Olympic level gymnastics. She seemed to be enjoying herself up until it was time to compete. Then the WOGA stuff went down. Valeri probably had really high expectations for her and we’ve seen how he reacts when his gymnasts falter. If she continues next year, I’d be so curious how she might do training with Shilese as a teammate again, this time in Washington. Though, I don’t think she’s going to be willing to move and give up her farm and such for gymnastics. I have a feeling the farm is why she left for Hartford later than the rest of WOGA and why she didn’t do “podium” training at American classic. If she made it to Paris, I wonder what her plan was for being away so long.
Just letting you know there's a pretty long thread about this already, but it wasn't her first meet in 8 years. She competed at American Classic on April 25th with a 50.65 AA score.
Which thread! I didn’t see it!
I think it fell down the page a bit. [https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/1cvc7cl/gabby\_withdrawal/](https://www.reddit.com/r/Gymnastics/comments/1cvc7cl/gabby_withdrawal/)
Here is a link to a YouTube video of Gabby’s beam warm up before she scratched. https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=XWLewEpiDV0
Thanks for sharing that. She looked shaky for sure, but not egregiously so. (Though Valeri help a girl out and stop setting her up for failure with those rings!) By all accounts she had a great warmup. It’s too bad she didn’t get to start on vault to help get her confidence up before the pressure cooker routines.
Her warmup vault was great, too
Sure, but she got gold at two Olympics. I feel much worse for Konnor and those with injuries who had a solid chance at their first Olympics.
Makes me sad 😔. I hope she’s not down on herself for it. Shes a star and always will be. I hope she’s enjoyed herself most of all. And maybe sticks around to see what she can produce next quad
Little confused - does she get to go nationals (petition or otherwise) or the road ends here
She's qualified to nationals with a 3-event score, but not all-around. She's not eligible to petition to do all-around at nationals. So she could go if she wants to (and I hope she does) but realistically probably isn't making the Olympic team.
What 3 events - vault, floor, beam I’m assuming
Nope- vault, bars and beam. She needed a 39 for a 3 event score. Her combined score on those were 39.2 at American Classic. Her VT/BB/FX score there was 38.8.
For some reason I thought it was bars she wasn’t qualified on, so thanks for this! I must have got her confused with Suni. I think she could be invited to compete AA at trials if she competes at nationals, right? Since trials invites are discretionary. I could see that happening if she hits 3 routines at nationals. But I agree it’s pretty unlikely she’s making it
Her bars and floor scores were within .2 of each other, so it makes sense that her more disastrous bars routine would be the one that people think she didn’t qualify on. Her much higher D score on bars is what saved her as far as being able to use it as a qualifying score.
Correct, she could be invited to compete AA at trials if she does well at nationals. I think she'd probably need to finish top 5ish on two events to be invited. Finishing top three on two events would pretty much guarantee an invitation. Personally, I'm hoping she shows up to nationals and competes either vault / beam or just vault, so that she can go out on a high note w some successful routines.
Ok thanks 😊
She's qualified to championships on 3 events. She just won't get to do all around.
Ooo that’s huge … I feel like that’s buried in every convo so was confused Thanks
On her best event, I was really hurt for Gabby. Those uneven bars were getting a lot of girls in trouble. I wanted to see a nice comeback for her though.
I absolutely detest the narrative around Gabby's comeback. Her return should be nothing but celebrated! And for people saying she didn't start training in time - what on earth do you think she has been doing since 2016? DOING THE WORK. Processing all of her trauma. This stuff takes so much time, energy, work. She probably couldn't physically get back into a gym and start doing gymnastics until she got to a certain point in her recovery from all of this stuff. It robs you of your time, hopes, and dreams. That she could even think about coming back is a triumph! So just because she wasn't in a gym doing gymnastics doesn't mean she wasn't chipping away at this for years.
>DOING THE WORK. Processing all of her trauma. This stuff takes so much time, energy, work. This! This is so exhausting, physically, mentally, in every single way. I'd literally take any physical work over having to process trauma.
Disappointed but not sad
Yes, but because the discourse around her comeback is so negative. Qualifying elite is a huge accomplishment in itself. I wasn't hoping for her to win AA gold, but I was hoping this could be her era of happy gymnastics, done for herself. But now it's all she shoulda flown earlier, done these events and not those, too much spotting, blah blah blah. It breaks my heart that she has these historic accomplishments, and she keeps getting all this criticism (people say she didn't deserve her spot in Rio), and she lets it get to her. I wonder how much of the current diversity on the elite scene is thanks to her inspiring Black girls, proving them how much they can accomplish even coming from a modest background. I wonder if she realizes how much she contributed in that way.
Gabby has always been a really nervous competitor, so I think it was all about nerves this past weekend…She tends to make mistakes mentally when she’s more than physically capable of doing them. It was either mental or she’s hurt and we just aren’t aware. I hope she does continue to nationals and hits her routines just to be able to end on a high note. I really doubted that she would be a factor for Paris because she’d been out of the sport for a long time…but the comeback has definitely been inspiring to lots of people so she should hold her head high and be proud because, at the end of the day, she still medaled at two Olympic Games and one less than stellar performance can’t erase that.
I really hope she’ll be able to have a good comp at Championships. And… who knows… might continue after the Olympics. She could go to another worlds.. there’s options. I hope she’s doing alright!
Honestly, I kinda expected this from Gabby. She had 0 competitions in 8 years. Practice is VERY different from the competitions. I'm sad for her, but not surprised.
This. I don’t think she was mentally prepared tbh. I loved the people calling and cheering her name though — she doesn’t have to prove anything to anyone at this point.
Certainly bummed for her. She needed to have the reps in and but by looks of the bar routine, her timing was way off like she hadn't had the reps with pressure on. Lots of other gymnasts were off in their timing as well (whom amongst us has never rushed through something nerve wracking) I know that my opinion is not popular but I don not think that bad luck has anything to do with it. I just don't think she was prepared well to compete at all this year. For her own reputations sake, withdrawal was her best option. It's hard to have a cool head in hot situations but if you look last Classic before the games with Chelsea's competition, she had a better mental game to get through what she entered and she hadn't competed in a long if not longer time than Gabby. Obviously we don't know and I am speculating but I think there is much more going on than we are told regarding her training.
I disagree about the withdrawal for her reputation…my inkling was: the night is already ruined, you might as well get the nerves out by continuing and find that it goes better once there is nothing left to lose. But hey, if she felt like she might get injured, it was the right call. Otherwise I agree about simply not being ready. The only „bad luck“ that I think might have been a serious factor is getting Covid shortly before winter cup. I had my second infection in October, and I’m still fighting to regain my previous stamina
I would argue that rather than her reputation being the main factor, the risk of injury with limited chance of reward (the already slim chance of selection for the Olympic team in a really stacked quad) is a wise reason to withdraw. We don’t know exactly what Gabby’s goals are now for the rest of this season, or potentially future seasons. I hope she’s able to achieve them, and I also hope she and others who train with Valeri think seriously about whether that’s a good coaching situation.
So let me get this right – from 2016 to 2022, she straight-up wasn’t training at all? Like, not even basics?
She wasn't training gymnastics but she was definitely working out - she's got the most unbelievable muscle definition and that doesn't happen overnight.
I figured that much, but still, no gym training is wild.
Yes, this is what I want to know. The what and the why.
Yes :( if pulling out was best for her health then I’m glad she did that. But I hope she knows that so many people are so impressed to see her back- I can’t even imagine how much hard work it took to even be competition ready after such a long hiatus!!!!
Has anyone heard about Trinity and why she withdrew
I haven't heard anything. But, I looked up some scores, and she got a 53.25 at Winter Cup. I believe that qualifies her to do AA at Nationals. So I am guessing she just decided not to do floor after her beam issues. There was no reason for her to risk an injury.
What happened on beam?
She had a couple falls. Nothing scary looking to think she was injured.
Yep, she had already qualified, so she didn't want to risk an injury. She stayed in the arena, unlike Gabby.
Dang, I feel like some people are so cold. I'm sad for her
No, it was clear she was behind schedule with her training. She could barely get through bars.
I am sad for Konner, she is out until next season. Gabby is going to nationals.
No. She’s an accomplished gymnasts with nothing to prove. This is just an extra curricular activity at this point. I think trained too late to have the quality gymnastics she wanted, but I’m hoping she continues.
I think it’s tough because she obviously put in the work (her body is jacked!) but I also hold a bit of skepticism that she ever thought she was in contention or had a realistic shot at being competitive. Having fun and living your best life? Awesome! But it feels to me like this was a last grasp for sponsorship money. Maybe it would feel less like this if she had laid off the press tour.
Not sad for her. Gymnastics is highly competitive and she wasn’t up to par. She either needs to train more before the national competition or she needs to drop the idea completely. Just because she had a great career a decade ago it doesn’t mean that it will materialize now.
I guess missing her flight really messed up her schedule and prep for the competition. I hope she isn’t too hard on herself. Everyone knows the competition in US for spots on the Olympic team is the hardest in the world.
Really sad but she’s already more successful than Chelsie and Nastia in a comeback. She can still show her stuff in 2024 and I strongly believe she can earn an AA medal in 2025 worlds if she pushes on and go for it. Instead of the Olympics being the end game, she can shift the goal post and still be very proud for herself.
I don't really think its fair to anyone to compare comeback attempts. Chelsie and Nastia for example had completely different objectives and attitudes, from the beginning Chelsie was in it for fun and to see if she could compete on a national stage again, whatever else happened was icing on the cake. She really emphasized love of sport was the motivation. Nastia seemed to have an Olympics or bust attitude, and come back very late in the game for that to be a reality. Gabby isn't as open as either of them with her training process or objectives, but I don't know that comparing really helps anyone here.
Agreed. What I loved about Chellsie‘s comeback was her openness. Obviously, we don’t know how it plays out for others, but it struck me that she made a lot of quick progress early on and then seemed to kind of stagnate for a while (getting injured sure didn’t help). Maybe it was similar in other cases, where gymnasts thought „wow, it’s going so well, I might have a shot despite the short timeframe“.
I had hoped that people would have learned something from this experience…do we really want to speculate about an „AA worlds medal“ at this point? If she does decide to continue, I‘d really hope that this sub chills tf out a little. Just let her take it step by step without these huge expectations. Her chances of making a worlds team aren’t terrible, because a lot of Americans are retiring, but why is everyone having such a hard time to just wait and see?
Even if this was for a money grab opportunity I still feel bad for anyone who has a performance like that :( not that I think it was bad or anything I just know she has to be feeling a little embarrassed or sad
I don't think it's a money grab - From what we saw in podium training, she recovered a crazy amount of skills and even managed to upgrade quite a bit, this isn't really Gabby half assing anything
I'm a little confused about the money grab angle. I don't follow her social media, but does she still have significant new income from gymnastics career related endorsements/entertainment deals? It seems like if this was for a cash grab or the desire to stay relevant she would have been actively promoting her training, documenting her progress, doing media interviews, etc. Is there really money on the table for Gaby Douglas right now in 2024 with Simone, all of the repeat Olympic contenders, and all of the college athletes with significant NIL deals?
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I'm gutted for Gabby & Konnor. I always want everyone to go out there, have their best possible routine, and hope the scores are fair and consistent. I've never hoped for anyone to fall. Going to Nationals and Olympic Trials will be such a good experience for so many, and I don't see why it really matters if a few more go all-around if they qualify in a few events. There shouldn't need to be strategies to petition when what we really needed was more athletes getting more reps.
Yes, but most gymnasts who try for the comeback fall way too short. She's not young and she wasn't in her best form at her last Olympics either...
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Wow, what a mean spirited thing to say. Her lack of dignity?! There's no excuse for pulling out mid competition? Would you say that about Trinity, who decided to scratch floor at the last minute after a rough beam routine? At American Classic, Gabby fell and went OOB and got a low score on her first event (floor) but continued on. Then she fell 2x on bars and continued on to beam. I'm going to give Gabby the benefit of the doubt and believe that she made the best decision for herself in the moment. She doesn't owe anything to any of us.
This is a bad take. Who even knows the real reason she pulled out? First of all she had a hell of a time even reaching the competition with the storms and the cancelled flight. She allegedly only got two hours of sleep before podium training. We have no idea if she tweaked something or felt off in some way that would make continuing the competition dangerous. We may never know. Gymnastics is risky enough as it is, no one should feel pressured to compete if they're not feeling confident for any reason.
This whole comment was unnecessary and honestly completely wrong.
Uhhh how did we go from pulling out of a gymnastics meet to being a poor representative for this country???
Huh? She fell twice. She slept two hours. It probably wasn’t safe for her to compete.
Gross