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Chellsie Marie Memmel (born June 23, 1988 in West Allis, Wisconsin) is an American gymnast. She is the 2005 World All-Around Champion, making her the third American woman, after Kim Zmeskal and Shannon Miller, to become World Champion in the All-Around. She is also a World Champion on the uneven bars (2003) and as part of the U.S. team (2003). She is a member of the United States' 2008 Olympic women's gymnastics team.[1]
With a total of seven World and Olympic medals, Memmel is tied with Dominique Dawes and Shawn Johnson as the fourth most decorated U.S. female gymnast in history behind Shannon Miller (16 medals), Nastia Liukin (14 medals), and Alicia Sacramone (8 medals).[2][3]
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Memmel has two skills named after her: a double turn with leg fully extended in a "Y" on floor and a piked barani on beam.
Memmel is also the third woman in the world to complete a Dos Santos, an Arabian double front in the piked position.
As of June 2008, Memmel often competed the following skills on the following apparatuses.
Uneven Bars: Hindorff to Pak transition, stalder Shaposhnikova, Tkachev, Luo (jam to handstand) to a double front dismount.
Floor Exercise: double Arabian in the piked position (called a "Dos Santos" after Brazilian gymnast Daiane Dos Santos); double layout; two and a half twist to front layout; double twist; double pike; Memmel turn. Memmel has commented that she would like to upgrade the double twist to a tucked double Arabian.
Balance Beam: piked Barani, standing Arabian, Illusion turn, double pike dismount.
Both of Memmel's parents are former gymnasts and coaches, and they co-own M and M Gymnastics. When Memmel began the sport she was coached by her parents, but as she became older they chose to send her to Jim Chudy of Salto Gymnastics. After the 2004 Olympics, Memmel asked her father, Andy, if he would coach her again. She is now coached by Andy Memmel and Laurie Glazer at M and M Gymnastics.
Memmel began gymnastics as soon as she could walk. Both of her parents were gymnastics coaches and they encouraged her to play around in the gym and taught her basic gymnastics. When she was 8 years old they realized she would be better off working with a coach who had more expertise so they had her work with Jim Chudy of Salto Gymnastics.
She became an elite gymnast at the age of 10.
Memmel began competing as a Senior International Elite gymnast in 2003. She placed third at the National Podium Meet and American Classic. She was invited to compete at the Pacific Challenge, a tri-meet with Canada and Australia. At that competition, she won the all-around.
At 2003 U.S. Nationals, Memmel was coming off of a hamstring injury which had limited her training time. She made mistakes during her floor routine and placed tenth in the all around. At the Worlds Selection Camp several weeks later, Memmel was selected to the Pan-American Games team, but not for the World Championships.
Memmel won the all-around and the uneven bars at the Pan-American Games. She won a total of five medals overall.[4] During this time, seveal gymnasts who had been chosen for the World Championships team were sidelined by injury and illness - Annia Hatch tore her ACL, Ashley Postell had a severe case of the flu, and Courtney Kupets ruptured her Achilles tendon. At the time, Memmel was the third alternate to the World Championships team, after Samantha Sheehan and Terin Humphrey. With Hatch, Postell, and Kupets all unable to compete, Humphrey and Memmel were both called upon to compete. Sheehan was also injured at this point and unable to compete, so the US was only able to field a five-member team, instead of the usual six. Memmel flew from the Pan American Games directly to the World Championships.[5]
Memmel led the American team in the preliminaries, finishing second in the world as an individual and qualifying to the all-around competition. In the team finals, Memmel was the only American selected to compete in every event, helping the embattled U.S. team win its first team gold medal at the World Championships.[6]
During team finals, Memmel earned the highest all-around score in the world, proving herself as a legitimate contender for all-around gold. During the all-around, however, she faltered several times and ultimately tied for 8th place, while her teammate Carly Patterson won the silver medal. She became an individual World Champion a few days later, however, on the uneven bars, tying with teammate Hollie Vise. Memmel also competed in the balance beam event final, finishing sixth after a fall on her Arabian salto.
Memmel began the Olympic year by competing at the American Cup, where she debuted a Dos Santos, a difficult new tumbling pass, and placed third place behind Carly Patterson and Courtney McCool. Based on the impressive competitive mettle she displayed in Anaheim the previous summer, her World title on bars, and her solid performance at the American Cup, she seemed poised to claim a spot on the 2004 US Olympic team. But during a training camp in April, Memmel broke a metatarsal in her foot while training a piked barani on beamand was unable to compete at Nationals or Olympic Trials.
She petitioned for a chance to compete at the Olympic Selection camp, which was granted, but at the time of the final selection camp, she was still unable to compete to the best of her abilities. She did not compete on floor exercise or vault during the final camp, focusing instead on her strongest events, uneven bars and balance beam. At the end of the selection, Memmel was named as one of the alternates to the U.S. Olympic team. The team went on to win the silver medal behind Romania.
After the Games, Memmel won the uneven bars at the 2004 World Cup Final.
Memmel began the 2005 season at the American Cup, which did not have an all-around team competition that year. She competed on the uneven bars and balance beam, winning bars and placing third on beam. She also competed in a series of friendly meets throughout Europe that spring, competing on vault, bars, and beam.
She competed in the all-around for the first time in more than a year at the U.S. Classic, where she placed fourth after a fall on floor. At the U.S. Championships, she led after the first day of competition, but after a fall on beam the second day of competition, she took the silver medal, behind Nastia Liukin. She was named to the team for the Pan-American Games, where she won titles in the all-around, on bars, and on beam.
Memmel also earned a spot on the 2005 World Championship team, along with Liukin, Alicia Sacramone, and Jana Bieger. At Worlds in Melbourne, she and Liukin became the top two gymnasts not only in the U.S., but in the world. In preliminaries, Liukin, competing in the final subdivision after Memmel, led the all-around by less than a tenth of a point. But during the finals, Memmel just edged her teammate to win the all-around title according to the rules. Memmel's win made her the third American woman, and the first since 1994, to win the all-around at the World Championships. She and Liukin continued to dominate the standings in the event finals, but it was Liukin who took the gold this time - on both bars and beam - while Memmel took the silver on both events.
After her success at the 2005 Worlds, Memmel decided to go pro and forgo her NCAA eligibility.
Memmel began 2006 by competing at the Pacific Alliance Championships, where she and Liukin extended their rivalry by tying - this time without a tie-breaker - in the all-around. She also earned the gold medal on beam and the silver medal on floor.
Memmel injured her shoulder while training an overshoot at the Pacific Alliance Championships, and decided to not compete at the U.S. Classic to protect her shoulder. Two weeks later, she competed watered down routines at the U.S. Championships, where she placed 4th in the all-around and was named to the 2006 World Championships team.
At the 2006 World Championships, Memmel was back to top form, qualifying first to the all-around final and earning berths in the bars and floor finals. The U.S. team struggled in the team finals, however. Bieger fell on her vault, Liukin was limited to one event, the uneven bars, by an ankle injury, and Memmel had an uncharacteristic fall on her Hindorff release on uneven bars. On the balance beam, however, Memmel was able to steady herself from falling off beam when she landed a front tuck with one foot completely off the beam.
Unfortunately, she injured her shoulder during her uneven bars routine, remarkably, after she had fallen. She was forced to withdraw from all individual finals and was later diagnosed with a torn labrum. She was replaced in the all-around final by Ashley Priess, in the bars final by Bieger, and by Natasha Kelley in the floor final.
Memmel did not compete for much of the 2007 season as she recuperated from surgery to fix her shoulder injury. She did only a watered down vault at the U.S. Classic and performed only on the floor exercise at the U.S. Championships in August, a move that did not earn her a place on the 2007 World team, but which she hoped would remind team coordinator Karolyi of her dedication to the sport and determination to make a full recovery.
Memmel made her all-around comeback at the Good Luck Beijing International Invitational, a test meet for the Olympic Games. The gymnasts competed in the same arena and on the same apparatuses that would be used at the Olympics. Memmel placed fifth in the all-around and third on beam, where she performed new skills including a front aerial to prone mount. Her uneven bars routine did not qualify her for event finals.
Following the Beijing test event, Memmel traveled to the Toyota Cup in Toyota City, Japan where she won the gold medal on floor exercise and the silver on balance beam. After her first all-around competition in a year, Memmel 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."
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 Károlyi.
In June, Memmel competed in the U.S. National Championships, placing third in the all-around behind Shawn Johnson and Liukin. 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.[7] 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 3, 2008, it was announced by USA Gymnastics that Memmel had injured her ankle during training in Beijing[8]. Although the injury was not major, and she was still expected to compete, she would be limited to one event: uneven bars.[9] Later on, however, it was revealed that the injury was not in fact a sprain, but a broken bone. Even with this injury, Memmel competed on the uneven bars twice at the Olympics. In the team qualification round, she fell on a release skill, but during the team finals, she performed cleanly, helping the team win the silver medal behind China.[10]
After the Olympics, Memmel participated in The Tour of Gymnastics Superstars with her teammates, but was unsure if she wanted to continue full-time training. She decided to compete one event at the U.S. Championships and performed a watered-down beam routine each night. She was named to the national team and has been invited to the first selection camp for the 2009 World Championships team. Her withdrawal was announced on October 2, 2009.[11]
2005-2008: "The Bongo Song" by Safri Duo
2003-2004: "Dancing In The Light" by Entrain
2002: "Suits Are Picking Up The Bill" by the Squirrel Nut
Zippers
Memmel just purchased her first home in West Allis, Wisconsin, a three bedroom ranch.[12]
Chellsie Memmel appeared in a Johnson & Johnson commercial.
She participated in a Vogue photoshoot with Annie Leibovitz along with other World medalists and Olympians Shawn Johnson, Nastia Liukin, and Alicia Sacramone.
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   | M and M Gymnastics - M&M Gymnastics : Home of World Champion Chellsie Memmel |
| | Chellsie's bio on usolympicteam.com - teamusa.org - The page you were looking for doesn't exist (404) |
| | Corporate Sponsor GK Elite Sportswear - GK ELITE Gymnastics Leotards - Choice of Champions |
| | "Olympians At Last." - NBCOlympics.com - Olympians at last |
| | U.S. Olympic Team for gymnastics boasts 29 world medals, one Olympic medal - :: USA Gymnastics :: |
| | Chellsie Memmel Biography - Chellsie Memmel | Athletes | USA Gymnastics |
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