|
As the gymnast the whole world was watching, Memmel began the year more slowly than she would have liked after having surgery. Although she was not in peak form, she competed in the Pacific Alliance Championships where she tied for the highest score in the All-Around with her biggest rival, Nastia Liukin. Once again, the top two gymnasts in the world were neck and neck.
Chellsie injured her shoulder while training an overshoot while competing at PAC. She opted to not compete at Classics in 2006 to protect her shoulder but was well enough to compete watered down routines at Nationals two weeks later. Chellsie placed fourth at Nationals, largely because her injuries prevented her from competing at full difficulty (however she had two hit bar routines despite not having practiced a full routine until a week before the competition).
At the 2006 World Championships, the U.S. team's health was called into question with Memmel still nursing her injured shoulder and injuring her ankle in training, Nastia Liukin severely sprained her ankle forcing her to compete on bars only, and Alicia Sacramone and Natasha Kelley also overcoming injuries of their own. Nonetheless, the U.S. team shined in the qualification round, with Chellsie anchoring the team with solid scores and a competitive spirit. Chellsie qualified first for the all around finals and also qualified to the uneven bars and floor event finals as well. Although the U.S. team qualified first and was favored to win, they had too many costly mistakes in a competition format where every routine counts. Jana Bieger sat down her vault during the first rotation, and Chellsie fell on her Hindorf release move on bars in the second rotation. Liukin struggled on her bar dismount. Chellsie was visibly disheartened by her uncharacteristic mistake but was able to save herself from falling off beam when she landed a front tuck with one foot completely off the beam. She was able to turn around an excellent floor routine that showed off aggressive style. However the Chinese team had counted no major errors and proved to be victorious over the United States team.
Chellsie's fall from the uneven bars reaggravated her shoulder injury from earlier in the year, and Chellsie was left with a tear in her shoulder. Neverthless, she remakrably competed in the next two rotations for the team. Chellsie then withdrew from the All Around competition where she had been favored to defend her All Around title from the year before, and the event finals. Her American teammate, Ashley Priess, took her place in the All Around and placed in the top ten. Natasha Kelley took Chellsie's spot on floor event finals and Jana Bieger replaced Chellsie in the bars finals.
In August, 2007 when Nationals rolled around, Chellsie was still recovering from her shoulder injury. She was able to compete on floor exercise at the first day of the U.S. Championships.
After the success of the 2007 World Team in Stuttgart Chellsie decided to make her AA comeback at the Good Luck in Beijing International Invitational which is a test meet for the Olympic Games. The gymnasts competed in the same arena and on the same aparatuses that will be used at the Olympics. Chellsie was fifth in the all around and third on beam and on beam, where she showcased new skills including a front ariel to prone mount. Her Bars routine, normally her highest scoring event was watered down and she did not qualify to event finals. Following the Beijing Test Event Chellsie traveled to the Toyota Cup in Toyota City Japan where she won Toyota the gold medal on floor exercise and the silver on balance beam. After her first AA competition in a year, Chellsie said "I'm not all the way back yet -- my floor was basically the same, but there are a few more things I want to add.... For the routines that I did, I'd say I was competing at about 80 percent. But in the gym, I'm at 90. My shoulder is good. My ankle is healed."
2008 season
In 2008, Memmel continued to work on perfecting her beam and floor routines while also raising the difficulty on her uneven bars routine. In May, 2008 she competed at an international competition along with other gymnasts who had not competed earlier in 2008 and wanted to prove their Olympic readiness to Marta Károlyi.
In June, Memmel competed in the U.S. National Championships, placing third behind Liukin and Johnson in the all-around. Memmel did well on uneven bars and balance beam, and competed a new, upgraded floor routine which included the Dos Santos skill she had competed in earlier years.
At the U.S. Olympic Trials held two weeks after Nationals, she again performed well on bars and beam, and received a standing ovation for her floor exercise routine on the final night of competition. Memmel was named to the selection camp where the U.S. Olympic Team would be chosen.
Memmel was named to the 2008 Olympic Team at the selection camp in New Waverly, Texas. Despite giving herself whiplash and having to stop in the middle of her first routine, the floor exercise, Memmel competed on beam later that day. On the final day of the selection camp, Memmel nailed a bars routine and landed a double twisting yurchenko for the first time in competition since 2006.
On August 3rd, 2008, it was announced by USA gymnastics that Memmel had injured her ankle during training in Beijing. It was announced that the injury was not major, and she is still expected to compete, though she will be limited to one event: uneven bars. Later on, however, it was revealed that the injury was not in fact a sprain, but a broken bone, covered up as a sprain. Even with this injury, Memmel competed on the uneven bars in the team qualification round but fell. At the team finals, she also performed on the uneven bars, that time a clean routine.
|