Friday, June 1, 2012

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'."

4 comments:

  1. The Inside Gymnastics interview with Chellsie is fantastic. That’s a true testament of someone’s character: keeping your composure, remaining professional, and only saying positive things despite being denied something you want or feel you deserve. I’m sure she’s a lot more angry and upset than she let on, but you’d never know it. Chellsie is a down-to-earth, classy lady! She’s a wonderful role model for all athletes.

    The last question and answer, about how it would’ve been nice to compete at St. Louis one last time since that was where her very first Nationals was, brought tears to my eyes. I already miss seeing Chells on the competition floor. :(

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  2. I don't know if you were quoting Inside Gymnastics or you got this interview. But it was WAY to similar to Inside Gymnastics's interview also released today.

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    1. Yup. Very similar. I was a little bummed. Chellsie committed to an interview with Get a Grip Monday and more than likely did our interviews in very close proximity. But no, it's not just taken from Inside Gymnastics.

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  3. My heart just breaks for Chellsie. This whole situation is just monstrously infuriating.

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