"Truly incredible" - Aly Raisman reacts to Gabby Douglas shining on comeback at American Classic 2024

As Gabby Douglas stunned with a vault routine on her comeback, former gymnast Aly Raisman congratulated the 2012 All-around Olympic champion for her performance at the American Classic 2024.

Douglas returned to competitive gymnastics after an eight-year hiatus, having last competed at the 2016 Rio Olympics. Although she was part of the gold medal-winning Team USA, she didn't feature in any of the competitions later on.

Douglas was earlier slated to compete at the Winter Cup 2024 but was forced out of the competition after testing positive for COVID-19. However, the 28-year-old finally performed her first routine on her comeback at the American Classic. While she looked a bit shaky on floor exercise, earning a score of 11.450, Douglas rose back in her next routines, delivering a stunning performance on the vault.

She earned a score of 14.000 to finish second on the vault and was appreciated online by the gymnastics community. Former Olympic champion Aly Raisman took to X (formerly Twitter) to congratulate Gabby Douglas, praising her 'hard work and dedication.'

"Congrats @gabrielledoug so much hard work & dedication went into this moment. Truly incredible! So exciting!!!", Aly Raisman expressed.

Douglas scored enough on vault and balance beam (13.350) to qualify for the U. S Championships. However, she missed out on the all-around discipline narrowly after only managing to score 50.650. Douglas needed a score of 51.000 to qualify for the tournament, which is scheduled in the latter part of May 2024.

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Aly Raisman won Olympic gold in floor exercise at the 2012 London Olympics, the same event where Gabby Douglas won the all-around competition. Raisman featured in the 2016 Olympics as well to secure silver in floor exercise but didn't feature in any competition after that before announcing her retirement in 2020.

The 29-year-old has now made a career switch to commentating and made her debut during the NCAA women's gymnastics championships. Speaking with People ahead of her debut, Raisman said that she was excited for the opportunity, and hoped to do a 'good job.'

"I'm so excited," Raisman conveyed. "If I'm being honest, I'm also very nervous because I want to do a good job."

When asked what it meant for her to take a new role, Raismam replied:

"Very different than anything I've ever done but it will offer ‘a really cool new chapter’ for me and a big challenge."