Star-Telegram

It wasn’t until after the U.S. women won the silver medal in team gymnastics at the Beijing Olympics that team member Chellsie Memmel revealed she’d competed with a broken bone in her right ankle.

It’s healed now. Well, “85 percent” anyway. Also healed is the shoulder injury that kept her limited in 2006 and 2007, along with the foot injury that kept her out of the 2004 Olympics. That’s music to the ears of this 20-year-old with the 2009 Visa Championships in August approaching.

“It’s almost healed. I had surgery on it in January,” said Memmel, who spent time with 70 gymnasts at Aerials Gymnastics on Wednesday afternoon to promote the championships, which will be at American Airlines Center in Dallas on Aug. 12-15. She also spoke at EveryBody Fits in Coppell and Trevino’s Gymnastics in Lancaster.

“It [the Visa Championships] is the new stepping stone and the starting point for the next four years,” said Memmel, who continued her promotional tour through the Metroplex on Thursday with stops in McKinney, Allen, Plano and Frisco. “It will be the girls that are wanting to make the 2012 Olympics, and some of the older ones like me who might stick around and compete for another World [Championships] opportunity.”

Memmel is no stranger to the Visa Championships. In 2008 she wrapped up a second-place finish on the uneven bars and third in the all-around. Also in 2008, she earned three second-place finishes on the uneven bars, balance beam and floor exercise (tie), and placed third in the all-around at the U.S. Olympic Team Trials.

Memmel was able to achieve all of this despite missing most of 2007 while recovering from a shoulder injury sustained at the 2006 World Championships.

“It was the constant goal of wanting to be on the Olympic team that kept me going,” she said. “It was hard. There were always the days when I thought, ‘Is it worth it?’ But you think about your dream and you know that it’s possible if you continue with a good attitude.

The injury proved to be a small glitch for someone who already had grown synonymous with the sport. At the 2005 World Championships, she became the first U.S. woman since Shannon Miller in 1994 to win the all-around gold medal. She finished second on both the uneven bars and the balance beam. At the 2003 World Championships, Memmel was part of the first team gold medal in history, tying for the gold medal on the uneven bars.

Her seven World and Olympic medals are tied with Dominique Dawes and Shawn Johnson as the fourth-most decorated U.S. female gymnast in history.

Posted in: Chellsie Memmel, Gymnastics, Press |