CHICAGO — Chellsie Memmel had more than her own mind to make up about this latest comeback.
She had to convince her dad, too.
Her father and coach, Andy, watched his daughter make a half-hearted return in 2009, and wasn't about to do that again. No, if Chellsie was going to try for the London Olympics, he was going to be certain she meant it.
"He didn't say no. He said, 'You have to want it. You have to show me you want it ... so I can see that you're serious and you want me to train you,'" Chellsie Memmel said Friday. "That was good. In 2009, it wasn't as fun because I wasn't totally committed and he knew it. He knew I wasn't 100 percent committed, and it didn't work as well."
But Memmel — and her father — are all in now.
She'll compete at her first major event in almost two years Saturday night with the hope of qualifying for next month's national championships.
"This is just to show everyone where she is right now, in the beginning stages," Andy Memmel said.
The Beijing Olympics were supposed to be the happy ending to Memmel's star-crossed career.
She was just 15 when she went from being a late-addition alternate to the anchor of the first U.S. women's team to win the world title in 2003. With the Athens Olympics only a year away, and the poise to match her dazzling array of skills, she seemed destined for the same sort of success as Mary Lou Retton and Shannon Miller. Memmel's explosive power makes her a natural for floor and vault, but her technique is so refined she's world class on balance beam and uneven bars, too.
But a foot injury kept her off the Athens squad, and she had to settle for being an alternate when the U.S. women won the silver medal and Carly Patterson became the first American since Retton to win the all-around title.
Memmel bounced back in a big way in 2005, edging Nastia Liukin by 0.001 points to join Kim Zmeskal and Miller as the only Americans to win the world title (Shawn Johnson and Bridget Sloan have since joined that exclusive club). She also won silvers on bars and balance beam, helping the U.S. women cart home nine of the 15 medals available.
She blew out her shoulder at the 2006 world championships, and missed most of the next 1½ years.
Finally healthy, she was a model of consistency in the summer of 2008, finishing behind Johnson and Liukin at both the national championships and Olympic trials to earn a trip to Beijing.
But she injured her ankle five days before the Olympics began — she'd find out later she'd broken it — and could only do uneven bars in both qualifying and team finals. The Americans were beaten by China for the gold medal, a bitter disappointment after winning the world title the year before.
"We just missed out on the gold. That's always a driving force, not quite getting to where you want to be, and also knowing you couldn't help your team as much as you wanted," Memmel said.
Though Memmel, then 20, was the second-oldest member of the Beijing squad, national team coordinator Martha Karolyi encouraged her to stick around for at least one more year. She tried, showing up for the 2009 national championships. But she struggled in her one event, balance beam, and later withdrew from the selection process for the world team.
"It was always in my mind," Memmel said about a comeback. "But 2009, I wasn't ready. I wasn't 100 percent. I wasn't fully committed. Should I try? Should I not? I could still do it, but it just wasn't to the best of my abilities and it wasn't as fun. It was nice to take a break in 2010 and finally miss it. And let my body heal."
Memmel's parents own a gym in suburban Milwaukee, M&M Gymnastics, and she'd show up to help out or work out. Last fall, she started dusting off her old skills, just to see what she could do. As the weeks went on, she got more and more serious about her training, and began asking her father for help.
But help was all she wanted.
"She'd ask, 'When do you want me to come in every day?'" Andy Memmel said. "I'd say, 'Am I in charge? No? Then I don't care when you come in.' ... She had tried a couple of other teams and her heart just wasn't there. Or something wasn't there. She had to prove to me — not as a parent, as a coach — OK, is it worth me putting in my effort for you to do this just because you THINK you want to?"
By late February, Memmel had her father convinced not just that she was serious, but that she was coming back for the right reasons.
"I don't think it's redemption for me," she said. "I just want to have a better experience."
Memmel's been on a formal training schedule since March 1. Unlike 2008 teammates Alicia Sacramone and Shawn Johnson, however, she has not been to any of the monthly training camps at the Karolyi ranch, and came to the qualifier with no idea what to expect.
But she was one of the sharpest gymnasts during training Friday, and seems to have that all-important Karolyi seal of approval.
"I'm trying not to think too far ahead but the Olympics is always in my mind," Chellsie Memmel said. "If I'm going to come back, why would I come back for the year before and not try for the Olympics? And that is a driving force, wanting that Olympic gold as a team."