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The gymnast in Laura is geeking out more than a little bit this week as she welcomes six-time World medalist and Olympic Silver medalist, Chellsie Memmel, to the podcast today. In addition to being only the third U.S. woman to achieve World all-around gold, Chellsie led Team USA to its first-ever World team gold medal in 2003, earned the all-around silver medal at the 2011 CoverGirl Classic, and has served as an official at the 2016 P&G Gymnastics Championship and the 2016 U.S. Olympic Trials for women's gymnastics. Currently, she is preparing for her comeback with an eye to the 2021 Olympics, and she talks about that and so much more in her conversation with Laura here today.

Chellsie and Laura cover her entire gymnastics career all the way from her beginnings in the sport up to her recent comeback attempt, and explore the very high moments of her many successes, as well as the many times that injuries impacted not only her ability to perform, but also her mindset. Throughout this review of her career, they also discuss the role her father played in coaching her, the role that both parents played in helping her during her times of recovery, the importance of acknowledging, grieving and moving past injuries, and how different her training, mindset, and confidence are now during her comeback. They conclude with a description of Chellsie\u2019s current YoutTube channel videos, and just how much Laura loves them. Chellsie Memmel\u2019s tale of success and perseverance through injuries is a truly inspirational one not only for athletes but for all who experience setbacks in pursuing their goals. There is so much that she has learned from these experiences, and she shares it all in this week\u2019s thoroughly intriguing episode.

Episode Highlights:

\xb7 How Chellsie got started in gymnastics\n\xb7 The highs and lows of her competitive career\n\xb7 Having her father coach her\n\xb7 Her many accomplishments in 2005\n\xb7 Chellsie\u2019s shoulder injury and her parents\u2019 help during recovery\n\xb7 Acknowledging, grieving, and moving past the impact of an injury\n\xb7 Her story of qualifying for Beijing and her experience at those Games\n\xb7 Olympic processing\n\xb7 Maintaining her mindset\n\xb7 What she did after Beijing\n\xb7 Celebrating her career\n\xb7 The story of her current comeback\n\xb7 The pandemic\u2019s impact for Chellsie\n\xb7 The hardest part and most surprising part of coming back\n\xb7 Her mindset and confidence now\n\xb7 A typical day for Chellsie now\n\xb7 The current gymnastics qualifying process\n\xb7 Her weekly videos

Quotes:

\u201cYou\u2019re kind of coaching him on how to coach you.\u201d

\u201cWhat are you learning from this situation so you can get better?\u201d

\u201cIt was just, like, sheer mental strength at that time of just being able to pull that out\u2026so that part of it was not great.\u201d

\u201cLooking back now, I can be super proud of what we did, but just in that moment, it was tough and it was bittersweet.\u201d

\u201cYou\u2019re like the Bionic Woman!\u201d

\u201cIt is so amazing like, how competitive I truly am, like, when it\u2019s something\u2026that I care about.\u201d

\u201cI always tried to use gymnastics as a way to get in shape, and this is the exact opposite.\u201d

\u201cThe gym just is empty \u2013 it needs gymnastics, so I started doing more.\u201d

\u201cI want to be able to give something my all.\u201d

\u201cDon\u2019t stand in your own way of doing something just because you know how hard it\u2019s going to be.\u201d

\u201cIt\u2019s keeping me healthy, it\u2019s keeping me sane\u2026but I\u2019m still making progress.\u201d

\u201cTo be doing better than I ever was before\u2026I just attribute that to the kind of conditioning that I\u2019m doing and the different appreciation I have for my body and how I am treating it and conditioning it.\u201d

\u201cI just obviously know from experience that a positive attitude is always much better to have.\u201d

\u201cI already feel like I\u2019ve won.\u201d

\u201cIt\u2019s been really cool to share this process\u2026I feel like it\u2019s really neat to have people be a part of the journey\u2026to also see the struggle and to see me getting nervous when I\u2019m trying something new.\u201d

\u201cTake a little bit of time for yourself\u2026I think it will make everybody happier.\u201d

Links:\nThe Pursuit of Gold homepage: http://thepursuitofgold.com/ \nMental Training: https://www.laurawilkinson.com/learn \nLaura\u2019s Social Media:\nInstagram: https://www.instagram.com/lala_the_diver \nFacebook: https://www.facebook.com/TheLauraWilkinson

Connect with Chellsie:

Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/cmemmel23/

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/c/ChellsieMemmel23

Twitter: https://twitter.com/CMemmel

Website: https://chellsie-memmel.com/