Friday, March 29, 2024

'I'm just so thankful': Gabriella Douglas's last season in green and white

February 20, 2020
Senior Gabriel Douglas during her balance beam event at the gymnastics meet at Jennison Field House on February 16, 2020. The Spartans took the win over the Fighting Illini.
Senior Gabriel Douglas during her balance beam event at the gymnastics meet at Jennison Field House on February 16, 2020. The Spartans took the win over the Fighting Illini. —
Photo by Connor Desilets | The State News


“I am so thankful that I have been able to be a part of a program that’s truly been so supportive of anything that I wanted to do here ... of me being my true, authentic self.”

As the only senior on the Michigan State gymnastics team, Toronto native Gabriella Douglas is heavy-hearted as she comes down to the wire on her last season in the sport she “accidentally” fell in love with.

Douglas, now 23, started gymnastics later than what is considered the “norm” after attending a friend's birthday party hosted at a gym around the age of 7 or 8.

Her parents pursued their daughter’s newfound passion, signing her up for recreational classes. Within a year, Douglas was caught up in the whirlwind, training up to 25 hours a week with a competitive team in Toronto.

Douglas made a clear name for herself in her precollegiate years, but battled injuries, enduring two surgeries before arriving on campus. 

After graduating high school in 2014, Douglas decided it best to stay home and continue training on the Canadian national team, because of the difficulties of navigating a new country.

dsc-2108

Douglas deferred her scholarship for two years, coming onto Spartan grounds in 2016, a little bit older, and a little bit more beat up, than the rest of her class.

“I was a freshman, but technically I was the age of a junior, so already had a good awareness of what I was doing and a good feel for the campus,” Douglas said. “I was a bit more mature and ready for college gymnastics, which benefited me in a way.”

She tore her ACL going into her sophomore year and missed that entire season. She called the ordeal a learning experience.

Douglas said she picked up a number of new leadership qualities and how to help her teammates on both the sidelines and the mats.

“Her contributions (helped) the younger classes evolve, grow and acclimate from not only their transition into college, but how to handle all of this all at once,” coach Mike Rowe said. “She’s a great mentor to the team.”

Douglas returned from rehabbing her knee as a junior and lived out her best season yet, continuing to carry that rediscovered fiery mojo into what is now her senior year.

“I'm happy that I’m still healthy right now and I’m still competing,” Douglas said.

When asked what her favorite meet has been, over the previous seven weeks of competition, Douglas didn't miss a beat: “Nebraska.”

“I mean, it’s kind of funny because we lost that meet. However, it was our best score by far in a really long time,” Douglas said. "That was the best score we've gotten since I've been on this team."

Douglas said that, during the Nebraska meet, all she could feel was positive energy coming from her teammates.

“It was the first time I felt like everybody actually had fun doing gymnastics,” she said. “Even though it was really, really close a lot of the times and we were fighting so hard, it didn’t feel stressful and everybody truly was enjoying themselves.”

20190317gym-3

Support student media! Please consider donating to The State News and help fund the future of journalism.

Personally, Douglas has improved in rankings and sits at seventh in the Big Ten conference and 37th in the nation on beam — her favorite event — averaging a score of 9.854. But she said it’s not about the numbers.

“I always go into meets, and go into my season, with the intention of just doing my best,” Douglas said. “Sometimes when you start to really look at rankings and get caught up in scores and the numbers, it gets kind of stressful."

Douglas said since she was little, her favorite event has been the balance beam. She knows everyone must look at her like she’s crazy when she says that, because it definitely looks the scariest of the four events, but Douglas said that it's more about the combination of artistry that drags her in.

“There’s a lot of dance elements to it,” she said. “But also power. There's so many skills you can do ... no one's beam routine looks the same.”

Rowe is proud to see how far his only senior competitor has come over the years. “(She’s) always striving to do better meet by meet, turn by turn,” he said. “She’s always working on refining and perfecting her skill and her craft. ... We’ve never seen it any other way.”

In April, Douglas will be retiring her leotard for good. She has plans to apply to medical school — with hopes to someday work in children's medicine.

But, that doesn’t mean she'll be done with the team, hoping to take on the role of student coach, or even just move mats and play cheerleader.

“(My coaches and teammates) have given me the grounds to grow and be who I want to be,” Douglas said. “It’s been the best support group I think I’ve ever been a part of, and I’m just so thankful that I’ve had them with me.”

Discussion

Share and discuss “'I'm just so thankful': Gabriella Douglas's last season in green and white” on social media.