Katelyn Ohashi takes next step in gymnastics comeback with ultimate goal in mind

For all Katelyn Ohashi accomplished in gymnastics — winning a U.S. junior all-around title at age 14, beating Simone Biles when they were both 15 and performing an NCAA floor exercise routine that garnered 253 million views — she never competed at a senior U.S. Championships.

At age 29, that may be about to change.

Ohashi, after ending a seven-year break from competition, goes to the U.S. Classic in Hartford on July 18 (7 p.m. ET, NBCSN and Peacock) looking to earn a spot at the Xfinity U.S. Championships in Phoenix from Aug. 6-9.

“Qualifying for championships would be the ultimate goal,” at Classic, Ohashi said Thursday.

To qualify automatically, she must score 26.80 points combined at Classic on her two events — balance beam and floor exercise.

Ohashi scored 24.65 points on those two events at the American Classic on June 28, her first meet since the 2019 NCAA Championships.

The hardest part of returning to the gym? Fear.

“I’m actually still terrified to do a back handspring,” on beam, she said.

American Classic marked her first meet on the elite level since the 2013 American Cup (where she beat Biles, her “double trouble” buddy, in each’s senior debut).

Fast-forward more than a decade, and Ohashi called Biles to confide her thoughts about coming back.

“I think (Biles) thought I was crazy,” Ohashi said, “which most people, I think, might.”

If at U.S. Classic Ohashi improves her scores on beam and floor each by an average of 1.1 points — a significant improvement, but not necessarily daunting considering she plans to upgrade her difficulty — she will become the oldest woman to make her senior U.S. Championships debut in recent memory, if not in modern history.

“I’m pretty much a senior citizen,” Ohashi joked. “I think it would be super exciting to compete (at) championships. This turnaround has been so fast with the three weeks situation (since American Classic) that I think six weeks (from American Classic to U.S. Championships) would give me a little bit more time and more preparation to actually do the skills that I would love to showcase this year.”

After winning the 2013 American Cup, Ohashi’s elite career halted a month later due to shoulder surgery. She missed the rest of that season, including what would have been her first senior U.S. Championships. She never returned to elite gymnastics and instead turned to the NCAA, competing for UCLA from 2016-19.

Before her floor routine went viral, Katelyn Ohashi was an injured gymnast who wondered if she would ever compete again.

She stayed involved in the sport in non-competitive capacities, even taking part in Biles’ Gold Over America Tour after the Tokyo and Paris Games.

Then Ohashi announced an out-of-the-blue comeback on June 24. Though she hadn’t competed since 2019, returning was something she “played with” in her head for years.

She was inspired by the 2024 U.S. Olympic women’s gymnastics team — the “Golden Girls” — the oldest since 1952 with four women in their 20s.

“It was exciting for me to know that (age) 16 isn’t the deadline, which was something that I was always told, and if I was going to actually make an Olympic team, I would have been 19 (in 2016), which my body felt kind of already destroyed at that point, which is something else to speak on,” she said. “I felt like I was done when I was 16, and here I am at 29 still going, so there isn’t really a ceiling in age.”

In 2025, she enlisted a personal trainer — lifting weights four times a week for three hours a day. Late in the year, she went into a gymnastics center every once in a while living in San Jose.

Then this past January, she moved back to her native Seattle area and began more serious training at Pacific Reign Gymnastics.

“This is probably the last few years for my body just to be able to hold up, and so that was kind of riding on it,” she said.

Ohashi then mentioned the 2028 Olympics — held in the city she lived in for 10 years — is “a beautiful thing to think about,” but it’s not top of mind.

“I don’t feel like there is an end-all, be-all in this journey that I’m pursuing back in the elite world,” she said. “I want to have fun with it. I want to see how far I can go with it, and how far I can push myself. At the end of the day, I’m happy with where I’m at. I guess, like Serena (Williams) has said, I have nothing to lose and everything to gain.

“Although I’ve always said I’m not sure how much there is to gain, either, for me. I feel like I’ve had so much success in my career, and I think having fun and joy in it is really the icing on the top.”

Everything to know about gymnastics at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, including event guide, venue and daily schedule.