Chellsie Memmel speaks out on Classics and a denied petition...

Property of Gym Examiner

I'm not going to catch you up on the whole Chellsie Memmel situation, but if you've been under a rock, you can read my post from earlier this week. A few days ago, I realized that we had heard from just about everyone in the gymnastics community on this issue with the exception of Chellsie Memmel, herself. I wondered what she had to say on the issue.

"Classics for me was going to be a tune up meet. We decided to just do one event so I could petition to do all around at Championships, " Memmel said, "No one actually said to me that I needed a 14 in order to be considered for a petition."

Was a score of 14 arbitrarily made up in order to keep the "princesses" in and keep Chellsie out? Many fans think so and are understandably outraged. In under a week, a petition published on Change.org has received over 2500 signatures asking USA Gymnastics to reconsider Chellsie's petition.

"I am so grateful to have this amount of support. It honestly took me by surprise how quickly people jumped into action. It's so nice to have such amazing fans," Memmel told Get a Grip.

USA Gymnastics President Steve Penny however, didn't feel as positive about the support, calling her fans "not very cordial or nice" to Andy Memmel according to Milwaukee Journal Sentinel article published Thursday. Penny also asked Chellsie to retire outright.

"He just suggested that I retire right away. I'm not ready to shut the door completely; I need some more time." But whether or not we'll see Chellsie on the floor next year is still to be determined.

"Right now, I am taking things one day at a time.  I don't know if I will continue, I was planning on being done after this year no matter how things turned out.  I just thought that I would have at least been given the chance to compete at Championships.  My first one was in St. Louis, it would have been cool to be able to have my last one there as well. Since I did take the judges course, that is definitely a path that I can take.  I am also thinking about college," Chellsie said.   

I'm sure that nearly all of Chellsie's fans would love to see her continue, successfully pursuing her 4th quadrennium in elite gymnastics. But I think that it's worth mentioning that few fans are surprised with the exceptional amount of class and professionalism Chellsie exhibited throughout this entire ordeal. When I asked if she thought that she was given a fair chance she simply responded, "I'm just going to say 'no comment'."