Douglas on schedule for a golden return

Associated Press

COLUMBUS

Gabby Douglas is exasperated. Again and again and again the defending women’s Olympic all-around champion emphatically slaps her right hand on one of the picnic tables that sit just past the front desk at Buckeye Gymnastics, the latest home in her nomadic career.

The 19-year-old isn’t angry, exactly. She’s just over the skepticism surrounding a “comeback” she insists isn’t a comeback at all.

“I took a break,” Douglas says between laughs, pounding on that poor table one more time. “It’s not like I retired for 30 years. I mean, come on. I’m still young. I’m still fresh.”

Competing in next year’s Olympics in Rio de Janiero was always part of her plan. The day after she made history in London as the first African-American to reach the top of her sport with a showstopping performance at the 2012 Games, Douglas and then-coach Liang Chow talked about celebrating again four years later.

She just didn’t imagine trying to become the first woman to repeat in nearly 50 years like this: in a new gym with a new coach, sky-high expectations and a reality film crew from the Oxygen Network on hand to capture it all.

With about a year to go until the flame is lit, Douglas will compete in the U.S. for the first time since the 2012 Olympic Trials on Saturday when she takes the floor for the Secret Classic in Chicago.

It will be an unveiling for Gabby Douglas 2.0: the older, wiser and decidedly more jacked version of the girl with the killer routines and the kilowatt smile who won over the world and an avalanche of sponsors on that brilliant August day three years ago.

On the surface, this weekend is a tuneup for the national championships next month. Beneath, however, is a quest to silence the doubt that surrounds Douglas’ bid to become the first repeat Olympic all-around gold medalist since Vera Caslavska of Czechoslovakia in 1968.

“When people say I can’t do something, I love it,” Douglas said. “I just say, ‘all right, let’s go. Let’s get it.’ I’m more confident. More courageous. More warrior-minded.”