Gabby Douglas Breaks Silence About Injury That Ended Her Paris Olympics Bid: 'Very Bittersweet' (Exclusive)

Gabby Douglas has taken a detour, but the iconic gymnast says she’s still on the road to the Olympics.

The 2012 Olympic all-around champion — whose Paris Olympics bid was stymied by a late-May ankle injury — is now eying the 2028 games in Los Angeles, she tells PEOPLE exclusively in conjunction with a partnership with Ancestry.

“I know it's four years away, but I'm looking forward to it,” Douglas, 28, says. “Still representing the USA, still continuing to do gymnastics, so I'm excited.”

It’s a dream years in the making for the Virginia native, who made history 12 years ago at the London Olympics as the first Black gymnast ever to win the all-around gold. Four years later, Douglas was part of the “Final Five” team (which included Simone Biles) that won the team gold in Rio.

But after eight years away from competition, Douglas’s comeback wasn’t in the cards.

“It was very bittersweet,” she tells PEOPLE about her injury, which she suffered in training during the week leading up to the U.S. Gymnastics Championships. “And it was actually doing my signature skill, which is the [standing] full on the beam.”

The meet was the gymnast’s last chance to earn an invitation to compete at the U.S. Olympic Trials, and her withdrawal due to injury effectively sidelined her Paris dreams.

Yet her love for the sport hasn’t waned, ever since she began pursuing gymnastics at the age of 6.

“Even when I was younger, I always loved going to the gym and challenging myself,” Douglas recalls. “I was always a super daredevil. I would always just flip and try new things, and my coach would always say, ‘Wait, hold on. You're not ready for that. Let's do the basics to get to the more difficult skills.’ ”

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Douglas will be 32 when the next Summer Olympics roll around, something that’s not lost on her. But it’s also something that she believes is not out of reach.

“I feel like at this point, age is really just a number because my body can still do amazing things even at 28,” she tells PEOPLE. “And I just think that when you have the proper diet, structure, schedule, and everything that aligns, then you can do anything that you put your mind to.” 

In the lead-up to the L.A. games, Douglas is preparing for the challenge in part thanks to her work with Ancestry — and the results of a DNA traits test which revealed how her genetics influence her athleticism.

Among the attributes found in Douglas’s Ancestry DNA test, she has a preference for team sports; she’s likely to be more self-confident, a leader, and motivated by success; and she’s more likely to be flexible and has naturally strong physical strength. Meanwhile, developing good technique and balance are skills that she has to work on, the test showed.

However, Douglas doesn’t need further analysis on why she’s not backing down from her desire to land a spot one day on her third Olympic team.

“My favorite part is the competition. I love getting in the gym, challenging myself, and I have had a ball playing around with different skills,” she tells PEOPLE.

Douglas adds, “I'd never done a lot of the skills before. I never had done my bar connection, which was Healy, to link to Jaeger, and I had never done a Downie before. So it was very fun, doing different things and realizing, ‘Oh man, I still got it.’ "

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