But Douglas said the gravity of that has not hit her. She forgot to bring her gold medals to an appearance on NBC’s Today Show on Friday, leaving them “somewhere in her room.” Later, she was surprised when a fan driving by slammed on the brakes, stopping to beg Douglas for a photo.

“What are you doing?” Douglas said she was thinking when the fan had stopped. “Oh, yeah, I remember now. Sure.”

Mary Lou Retton, the 1984 Olympic all-around champion, has told Douglas to get used to the attention. While Douglas might not realize it now — “You live in the village and everybody’s got medals,” Retton said — winning the all-around is life-changing.

At the 1984 Los Angeles Games, Retton was just a young girl from West Virginia trying to make it big in a sport dominated by Eastern Europeans. She was the first American to win the all-around title, skyrocketing her into stardom, and her megawatt smile and girl-next-door demeanor made her even bigger. She said fans still stop to tell her they remember where they were when she won her Olympic title.

“Oh my gosh, yes, she’s clueless as to what she has done until she gets back to the States,” Retton said of Douglas. “Literally, a seven-year-old is watching the Olympics, and that seed is going to be placed and they’re going to say, ‘I’m going to be just like her.’ She’s going to break barriers on so many different levels.”