Comeback Kids Meet the World

Martha Karolyi believes in second chances. And for the walking wounded of Team USA, working hard to recover in time for Beijing, that’s good news.In fact, Karolyi and USA Gymnastics believe so much in athletes like Chellsie Memmel and Ivana Hong, both returning from injuries that have kept them out of competition, they have set up a special competition, in part to help Memmel and her ilk gain valuable experience they weren’t quite physically ready for before now.

This week, during a special National Team training camp, seven U.S. gymnasts will meet teams from Germany, Italy, Canada, Venezuela and Colombia at the Karolyi Ranch in Texas for what National Team Coordinator Martha Karolyi calls a “low-key international competition” and joint training camp that began Wednesday and runs through the weekend.

“[This] will be a really good test for [Chellsie] as to how she is standing,” Karolyi told the media earlier this week. “Based on what I know, and I have been in touch with her father-coach, all the preparation went good and she is looking forward to prov[ing] herself. … I feel like she has the capability. She proved, when we went in early December to the pre-Olympic event, that she is a great competitor still, even though she was out for a while. Now she has to get back some of her skills and that’s what we’ll be seeing in this international meet. If she’ll be able to have her routines back, I know for a fact she’ll be competing very strongly and she could be an excellent asset for the U.S. team.

“Chellsie had a series of injuries, one after another. I don’t think any of those injuries were real hard injuries but they needed tine for healing,” Karolyi elaborated of 2005 World Champ Memmel’s extended time out of the limelight. “If you don’t practice, even if you’re World Champion (shrugs)… You’re on a peak, but you can’t expect to stay on the peak if you don’t work. Actually, that’s what [happened,] but finally she is healthy and preparing. She has had to work to get back her routines, but she has, plus she has to change over some things in order to match with the new Code of Points. Preparation takes time.”

“Ivana was on her way back at the last training camp I saw her,” Karolyi added. “I will be able to tell you so much more [after this week’s training camp]. All I know is that, when I saw her last month, she was getting stronger and she was reconstructing some of her routines. Based on what we saw at the World Championships some of her [skills] were maybe not received so well so she [is] try[ing] to reconstruct and include some new skills in her routines. She was on the right track.”

In addition to Memmel and Hong , Alicia Sacramone, who has been mildly injured and has abstained from international meets so far this season, up-and-comer Darling Hill, Ashley Priess (also coming back from injury) and emerging juniors Mattie Larson and Corrie Lothrop (both age-eligible for Beijing) will represent Team USA at the special camp/international meet.

All of the U.S. gymnasts taking part have had limited, or no, international meet experience this season and Karolyi will be watching closely to see how they hold up as Team USA heads into the final countdown for Beijing.

“The girls who will be in this competition are girls who have had some little injury or were not ready the first part of the year and didn’t get to participate in any other competition,” Karolyi explained, “so we definitely wanted to offer them an opportunity to have SOME pressure, but not so big, because then the next competition is U.S. Championships and already the pressure is growing because you have to get a ranking and qualify [to move on to Trials].

“So that’s why we call [this a] low-key competition,” Karolyi concluded, “but we will be using normal judging with international, Olympic judges and we will totally expect them to do [high-level routines] based on international standards.”

Karolyi insists it’s too soon to single out specific athletes she hopes to see on the Beijing squad but says she expects to invite “10-12 girls” to the final stage of the Olympic Trials process—a selection camp/two-day competition at the Ranch—in July.

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Inside Gymnastics photo by Grace Chiu