Gymnast of the Day: USA's Chellsie Memmel

When we think about gymnasts getting their start in gymnastics, we typically think of parents putting them in classes because they are always bouncing around the house, climbing on counters, and the parents put them in classes because they dont want them to get hurt. But Chellsie's parents were actually coaches, so she spent time in the gym, with the encouragement of her parents. While Chellsie was bouncing around the gym, Chellsie's parents taught her basic gymnastics. When they saw the promise in Chellsie, they realized that they lacked expertise, and enrolled her in classes with Jim Chudy at Salto Gymnastics at the age of 8. 

Chellsie began competing elite in the year of 2000. In 2003, Chellsie became a senior elite gymnast. She placed in bronze medal position at hte National Podium meet and American Classic. She was then invited to compete at the Pacific Challenge with Canada and Australia. At the Pacific Challenge, she won the all-around, with teammate Carly Patterson right behind her in the silver medal position. 

   At the 2003 Nationals, Chellsie had just conquered a hamstring injury, which, like any injury, had messed with her training time. She made mistakes in her floor routine, causing her to place in tenth in the all-around competition. At the 2003 Worlds Selection Camp, Chellsie made the Pan-Am Team, but not the Worlds Team.  When Worlds came around, many girls on the Team were injured or sick, so Chellsie was chosen to compete on the team. Chellsie was the only girl to compete on all four events in the team finals, and she led her team to their first ever Worlds Gold Medal. Individually, Chellsie won the uneven bars gold medal, but she tied with teammate Hollie Vise. 

  In 2004, Chellsie competed at the American Cup, placing third behind teammates Carly Patterson and Courtney McCool. During the Training Camp in April, Chellsie broke a bone in her foot, and was unable to compete at the 2004 Nationals, or the 2004 Olympic Trials, thusly, not making the Athens Team. She petitioned to the Olympic Selection Camp, but did not perform to the best of her abilities. Marta advised her not to compete on vault and floor, but to focus on bars and beam, her best events. After the sadness of not making the Olympic Team, Chellsie was able to go to the World Cup and win the UB Finals. So there were ups and downs to Chellsie's 2004 season. 

In 2005, Memmel started out her season competing at the American Cup. But she did win uneven bars and placed in 3rd on beam. By the U.S Classic, Chellsie was competing in the all-around again, but placed 4th. She then proceeded to place 2nd at Nationals behind Nastia Liukin. She did qualify to the 2005 Pan-Ams, there, she won the all-around title, and the uneven bars and beam competitions. She was then named to the Worlds Team along with Jana Bieger, Nastia Liukin, and Alicia Sacramone. She won the All-Around Title by just 0.001 over Nastia Liukin. She also took silver medals on bars and beam, both behind teammate Nastia Liukin. The success at the 2005 Worlds inspired Chellsie to go pro, and she gave up her NCAA scholarship eligibility.

    In 2006, Memmel started the year by competing at the Pacific Alliance championships, where she tied for first in AA with Nastia Liukin. Memmel then injured her shoulder while training an overshoot at the Pacific Alliancce Championships. She decided not to compete at the U.S Classic in 2006 so she can recover. Two weeks later, she competed watered down routines at the Nationals, where she placed 4th in the all-around, and she was named to the 2006 World Team. At Worlds, Memmel was still dealing with her shoulder injury, the U.S did well in qualifying, Memmel qualfied first for the all-around finals, and also qualified to the UB and FX finals. In the all-around finals, Chellsie fell off on a Hindroff release in the second rotation. On beam, Chellsie was able to save herself when she landed a front tuck, with one foot off the beam. Unfortunately, the bars fall re-injured her shoulder, tearing it, and withdrew from the floor rotation, as well as the individual event finals. 

   In 2007, Memmel's injury was still haunting her. She competed on floor on day one of the 2007 Nationals. After USA's success at the 2007 Worlds, Memmel was inspired to make her AA comeback. She would make it in the "Good Luck Beijing" Meet. It was considered a test meet for Beijing. The girls would compete on the same apparatus that they would in Beijing the following year. 

In 2008, Memmel made the Olympic Team, but once again, had an injury, so she could only contribute on bars, contributing to the USA team's silver medal finish. Memmel did try to make a comeback for London, but she missed a handstand, putting extreme pressure on her shoulder, ice was applied, and she was out.