After her success in Beijing, Liukin’s star rose beyond the gymnastics community. She appeared on “Dancing With the Stars” and her face graced Wheaties boxes in grocery stores throughout the country.
Instagram fame, which would go on to become an inevitable product of Olympic glory, did not yet exist. For that, Liukin is grateful.
“I don’t know how I would have handled social media when I competed,” Liukin said. “Regardless of how strong you are, mentally, physically, emotionally, it can affect you.”
Liukin passed the Olympic torch to fellow American Gabby Douglas, who at the 2012 London Olympics became the first Black gymnast to win the all-around.
Despite only four years elapsing between their Olympic all-around wins, social media had become increasingly ubiquitous in that time and only added to the bright Olympic spotlight.
“I remember I couldn’t go out to restaurants,” Douglas said. “I couldn’t go anywhere without getting mobbed, and I was like, ‘What is this?’ It was just so weird.”
She also faced online vitriol in the wake of her victory, which included criticisms of the then-16-year-old’s hair and physical appearance.
Douglas emphasized her gratitude for the opportunity to achieve her Olympic dreams, but said she was “very shy,” even after her success in London.
She returned to the Olympics in 2016 and earned another gold medal in the team event alongside Simone Biles, then 19, who would join the ranks of American all-around champions.
Despite returning to the Games, Douglas said she had a “rough go at it” in Rio.
“I faced a lot of challenges in 2016,” Douglas said. “It was a lot of politics that I faced, and I got super tired and burnt out. … I didn’t give it my best effort during the second Olympics, and so that always kind of ate me up.”
Unfinished business from 2016 motivated Douglas to return to elite gymnastics training after an eight-year break from the sport. During that time, Douglas revealed that she was among the hundreds of women abused by former USA Gymnastics doctor Larry Nassar.
USA Gymnastics filed for bankruptcy in 2018 after a reckoning with abuse that sent the organization and its leadership into a tailspin. Li Li Leung took over as CEO of USA Gymnastics the following year as part of an attempt to change its culture and implement processes and policies to protect athletes from abuse.
Douglas qualified for the 2024 U.S. Championships in hopes of advancing to the Olympic trials, but withdrew after an ankle injury interrupted her comeback.
She doesn’t intend to retire anytime soon — Los Angeles 2028 is on her mind.
“I’d like to represent USA in my home country, I think that’s very special,” Douglas said.
But with the next Olympics four years on the horizon, she plans to compete at the world championships or other international events like world cups in the interim.
“I never really got to do that in my era. I was a late bloomer,” Douglas said.
For the first time in history, an Olympic gymnastics team will include two all-around champions. Simone Biles (2016) and Suni Lee (2020) were both named to the U.S. women’s team competing in Paris.
When Douglas competed alongside them at the Core Hydration Classic in May, the trio represented 12 years of American Olympic dominance.
“The Star-Spangled Banner” could reverberate in an Olympic stadium once again this summer. The women’s all-around final will be held in Paris’ Bercy Arena on Aug. 1.
Biles and Lee are currently the top all-around gymnasts on the U.S. team. Biles has a significant difficulty advantage over her closest competitor, Rebeca Andrade of Brazil, making her the gold medal favorite to reclaim her title.
If she wins in Paris, Biles will be the first American to repeat as Olympic all-around champion.
“Nobody’s forcing me to do it,” Biles said after making her third Olympic team. “I wake up every day and choose to grind in the gym and come out here and perform for myself, just to remind myself that I can still do it.”