.jpg)
Chellsie Memmel competed only on beam at the 2009 U.S. Championships. AP Photo/Tony Gutierrez
2008 Olympic silver medalist Chellsie Memmel has withdrawn her name from contention for the 2009 World Championship team, USA Gymnastics announced Friday.
The good news is that Memmel, 21, is not injured. "I am not quite where I want to be gymnastics-wise," she told International Gymnast Magazine. "I haven't been able to do the number of routines and repetitions that I need to represent the USA at the highest level."
Memmel, the 2005 World all around champion, has always been plagued with injuries at the most inopportune times in her career.
A broken metatarsal in her foot kept her off the 2004 Olympic team. She suffered a torn labrum in her shoulder after falling from the uneven bars at the 2006 World Championships during team finals. The injury kept her from defeating the World all-around title she had won a year earlier and also kept her out of competition for most of 2007.
Memmel fans were heartened by her comeback in 2008, when she placed third at Nationals behind Shawn Johnson and Nastia Liukin, then finished well at the Olympic Trials.
But after being named to the 2008 Olympic team, Memmel fractured her ankle in practice five days before the Games began. She was limited to performing her uneven bar routine in team prelims, where she fell on her Tkatchev, and team finals.
She took a few months off to have surgery, rest and let her ankle heal before resuming training, then made her comeback at the 2009 U.S. Championships in Dallas in August, where she performed only on balance beam. Her scores were 13.8 on day one, where she incurred a neutral deduction for having her coach and father Andy stand on the podium, and 14.1 on day two. She finished tied for eighth on beam with Kytra Hunter.
Memmel said her goal was to make the 2009 World team as an uneven bars and balance beam specialist and return to competition as an all-around gymnast in 2010.
Chellsie Memmel, 2009 U.S. Championships Finals, Beam:
Memmel's withdrawal makes it more likely that Ivana Hong, Mackenzie Caquatto or Cassandra Whitcomb will be named to the U.S. World team. Memmel's withdrawal means that with the exception of one or two, each of the eight gymnasts still in contention will either make the team or be named an alternate. The eight still in contention are: 2009 U.S. Champion Bridget Sloan, Hong, Rebecca Bross, Hunter, Caquatto, Jana Bieger, Kayla Williams and Whitcomb.
The final U.S. women's selection camp began Sept. 30 in Huntsville, Texas. The team will be announced on Sunday.
Comments