Jake Duhaime
Sometimes the smallest
athletes have the biggest hearts. Right now, Memmel’s pretty much as unbeatable as it gets in the rough and sometimes brutal world of competitive gymnastics. Last week she won the Pacific Alliance Championships in Hawaii and capped off a storybook 2005 campaign with a World all-around title. Her recent lone defeat comes at the hands of J.J. Redick, who undeservingly beat her out for the Sullivan Award as the nation‘s top amateur athlete. The humbled Redick admitted such when he told the AP that the other nominees “win world championships and all I do is score.” The road to the top hasn’t come easy for the 17 year-old from West Allis, Wisconsin. There’s been a fair share of blood, sweat, tough breaks and tears along the way. In a sport where child prodigies are groomed for success, Memmel’s seen the ropes and been labeled just about everything. She’s been hailed as the future, has been kicked to the proverbial curb and has worked her way back up to the top of her sport. She’s done this showing great sportsmanship, a tireless work ethic and exceptional class in the process. Something all young athletes, gymnasts or otherwise should aspire too. She found her way into the spotlight three years ago at the 2003 World Gymnastics Championships in Anaheim, winning two gold medals, one on the uneven bars (her specialty) and another in the team event. With the 2004 Olympics just months away, her breakout performance at World’s had all but guaranteed her a spot on the U.S. team. But as Carly Patterson and company were busy racking up medals in Athens. Fate had other plans for Chellsie Memmel. She suffered a broken foot slipping off the balance beam four months before the Opening Ceremony. The injury kept her from key pre-Olympic training. She wasn’t the only one either, Hollie Vise, another member of that 2003 World Championship squad was sidelined with a back injury and a stress fracture in her foot. Vise watched the Olympics from home in Texas, Memmel watched from the stands in Athens after being named one of the three team alternates. Both Vise and Memmel were virtual locks to make the team before their respective injuries. “I don’t think I ever really felt like an Olympian there,” Memmel told NBC of her experience as an alternate. She could have spent her time in Greece wondering what might have been. Instead, there she sat, leading the cheers from her seat a few rows up. With limited scattered souls around the cavernous Olympic Indoor Hall, Memmel’s support and high pitched squeals were deafening. Pretty remarkable sportsmanship and maturity for someone who turned sixteen two months earlier. Much less someone watching their Olympic dreams shatter right before their eyes. When I met Memmel on that first day of the ladies team competition in Athens, her future was according to her, very much in the air. She seemed to be looking forward to living a normal teenage life. Something that the countless hours at the gym deprived her of. She was excited to finally be attending classes at a regular high school, to have more time for her friends, to do…normal teenager things. And yet there was a monumental decision looming on her career. She could make a run at the 2008 Olympics in Beijing, tone down her training and compete on the collegiate level or retire altogether. But as Memmel tried to separate herself from the gym following the Olympics, she couldn’t resist coming back. “I went home and started training to prove to myself that I could do it,” she told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin last week. “And to show everyone else that I could compete for the U.S. and do well.” It also helps that the Memmel’s are the definition of a “Gymnastics Family”. Both parents were All-American gymnasts, her two younger sisters have picked up the family trade and the family owns and operates their own gym. There wasn’t a snowball’s chance in hell she’d give up on the sport cold turkey. But the strain of competition on the International level? Another run at the Olympics in Beijing? That decision could wait, at least for another few years. Or at least until Memmel started to dominate the sport. She ended 2004 with victories at both the Pan-American Championship and the Grand Prix Final. Both times winning gold on her specialty, the uneven bars, along with a gold on the beam at the Pan-Am’s. She followed that up by dominating the Pan-Am’s in 2005, winning the all-around, beam, uneven bars and the team events. She finished second at the 2005 U.S. Championships behind teammate Nastia Liukin and then beat proceeded to beat Liukin to win the all-around World Championship. During this run of dominance it’s become quite evident that Chellsie’s savored the second chance she’s earned with all of her hard work. The spark in her eyes is clear, the ear to ear smile is genuine. There was no doubt, even watching on television, that Memmel was trying to soak up the moment while flirting with the lead during last year’s U.S. Championship. After all, given all that she had been through, she most certainly deserved too. Her decision on her future career path has seemingly made itself. Memmel announced last December that she would be hiring an agent and forgoing her NCAA eligibility. Instead of going to Georgia, UCLA or Alabama, Memmel’s clearly got Beijing on the brain. As it stands right now, she’s a clear favorite to take home a medal in two years. As long as her body doesn’t let her down first. Not to say I’d bet against her if that happens anyways. Jake Duhaime covered the 2006 Olympic Winter Games in Torino, Italy for Atomic Sports Media. He also was a resident at the U.S. Olympic Training Center in Colorado Springs, Colorado. He can be reached at jake.duhaime@atomicsportsmedia.com. © Copyright by Atomic Sports Media, Inc. |
