After finally watching the U.S. Classic and giving myself a couple of days for the two phases of the Memmel petition being denied debacle to marinate, I just wanted to post my thoughts on the matter. The gymnastics world is buzzing about this situation. This is not really going to sound different from what others have already said, but I figure the more attention brought to this, the better. Chellsie Memmel is a 2011 U.S. national team member, original 2011 Pan Am team member, 2005 world champion, and 2008 Olympian among other achievements. I am sure she would have preferred to not have been injured at the end of 2011 Nationals. I am sure she would have preferred to not have to had a surgery after world team camp. She probably would have preferred to qualify to Nationals without reducing things to doing one event at U.S. Classic and leaving the rest up to the mercy of the women's national team committee.
My position is that I think USA Gymnastics could have let Chellsie through to Nationals – NOT asking for her to be named to the national team, allowed to advance to Olympic Trials, or named directly to the Olympic team on the basis of who she is. Just another chance to go to Nationals. She seemed to be near the end of her career, anyway, and it would have been nice for her, the fans, and USAG for her to compete. It would have been nice for her to advance just a bit further. She was an original Pan Am team member – one of the ways you could petition to Nationals (although it was apparently revised to having had competed in that competition). She was injured and couldn't compete, but she was good enough to have been named. So she didn't go to camp after getting injured – Chellsie is one of the earliest girls who was ushered in with the camp system when it started. She's gone by the book so many years – she shouldn't have to be babied all the way with this camp system. She is older now and is injury prone, so I understand her and her coach-father's decision not to go each month. She fell twice on her required one event she had to do in order to meet another way to petition to Nationals. Well, once again, she is coming back from injury. It was tough luck after all of her years of typically hitting her routines. She did show pretty strong tumbling passes on floor during podium training, and she even swung a little on bars. Maybe she was not completely ready here, but would have been with the extra week. I feel on the basis of her being a current national team member, having been named to the Pan Am team, and having accomplished as much as she had - especially with her being the strong, scrappy hero for a few world/Olympic teams for the U.S. - she could have been given the benefit of the doubt here.
To make things worse, it seems unclear if the selection committee did or did not beforehand set a standard that one event gymnasts were required to hit. After the competition, according the Examiner article done by Blythe Lawrence (http://www.examiner.com/article/martha-karolyi-on-the-secret-classic-there-were-no-major-surprises ), Martha Karolyi said, “Even before the meet started, we discussed and agreed that we were expecting at least a 14.0 for anybody who's doing one event, because we have an official 28.0 qualifying score from the people doing two events. So then, if you do one, it at least has to be half of that.” Who is this “we?” The athletes discussing it with the committee, or the committee discussing it among themselves? How far in advance before the meet was this standard set? According to The Couch Gymnast blog (http://www.thecouchgymnast.com/?p=6523 ), there was not a written score for one event in the rules. In her Inside Gymnastics interview, Chellsie said, “I knew there was going to be, obviously, some criteria that I had to hit, but it wasn’t like anybody came up to me and said, ‘You have to have this or we will not …’ But, also, that’s not their job.” So even though Chellsie is not putting blame on them for not telling her, her answer makes it sound like there possibly was not a set score communicated to her. The elite qualifier chart on USA Gymnastics has set scores for four, three, and two events, but not one. You would think they would have learned from the Dominique Moceanu situation in 2006 to have the rules specifically stated all the way through.
The worst thing concerning this controversy, however, in my opinion, is the way USAG handled this. According to an article done by JS Online (http://www.jsonline.com/sports/etc/memmel-fans-flipping-mad-at-usa-gymnastics-is5kc9t-156105115.html), Andy Memmel revealed that USAG president Steve Penny tried to get Chellsie to retire after an online petition was started by fans to try to get Chellsie to compete at Nationals! Not only that, he told them Chellsie's fans aren't very nice. Then after the JS Online article came out, Steve Penny proceeds to put out a press release (http://usagym.org/pages/post.html?PostID=10192&prog=) in which every quote contradicts what Andy Memmel claims he told them. Um, too little too late Mr. Penny! The damage's been done! This part of the situation really disgusted me and got me really riled up. I haven't been too much of a conspiracy theorist regarding USAG, but I believe this situation with the Memmels has really exposed some of the flaws of USAG. I hope this doesn't go down quietly. Mr. Penny handled the situation very unprofessionally and it wasn't fair for Chellsie to have to deal with what is possibly the end of her career happening like this. Nevertheless, she has been classy with her responses to everything. Chellsie Memmel is legendary and the fans (you know, those who support the sport and pay for tickets to USAG events that help pay your salary, Mr. Penny) will not forget her. Thank you Chellsie Memmel for all the years of great performances and all that you've done to help USA Gymnastics go for the gold. We will not forget you.
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