Gabby Douglas is two for two in the Olympic year, beating a field that included Olympic teammate Aly Raisman at the Jesolo Trophy in Italy on Saturday.
The 2012 Olympic all-around champion Douglas won the Jesolo all-around with 59.65 points. Douglas competed for the second time this year, after winning the AT&T American Cup two weeks earlier.
“I need to work on being more confident, and just believing in myself a little bit more and being a little bit more aggressive,” Douglas said. “But overall I think I did well. Still more improvements to come.”
Raisman, the 2012 Olympic floor exercise champion, totaled 57.85 for sixth place Saturday, falling on a difficult Amanar vault. Douglas scored higher with a less difficult vault.
Douglas and Raisman both returned to competition at last year’s Jesolo Trophy for the first time since the London Games. They are attempting to become the first U.S. women to make back-to-back Olympic gymnastics teams since 1996 and 2000.
In five competitions together in their comeback, Douglas holds a 3-2 head-to-head edge over Raisman in all-around finishes. Neither Douglas nor Raisman has beaten Simone Biles, the three-time reigning World all-around champion who is a heavy favorite for gold in Rio.
Biles is expected to make her 2016 competition debut at the Pacific Rim Championships in April.
Douglas, Raisman and Biles were the three U.S. gymnasts chosen to perform in the all-around at the World Championships last October, with Biles and Douglas taking gold and silver.
Raisman was fifth in qualifying but didn’t advance because a nation can’t have more than two gymnasts in an Olympic or Worlds individual final.
Douglas, Raisman and Biles are favorites to make the five-woman Olympic team that will be named after July’s trials.
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Gabby Douglas wins Jesolo AA pic.twitter.com/aNqPPU7SlI
— Cordelia Price (@CordeliaGymFan) March 19, 2016
