New Berlin-based Olympian Chellsie Memmel's comeback inspires many adults to return to gymnastics

Growing up, 33-year-old Annie Lugo-Walsh always wanted to take gymnastics lessons.

"I always took the gymnastics unit really seriously in P.E. class," she recalled. "I remember we got to choreograph a (balance beam) routine, and you got extra points if you learned how to do a cartwheel off of it. I worked super hard at that."

Despite Lugo-Walsh's passion for the sport, she was never able to work up the courage to ask her parents to sign her up for gymnastics.

By the time she reached adulthood, Lugo-Walsh accepted that her dream would likely never come true. After all, gymnastics is notoriously reserved for children and teens. The average age of the U.S. Women's Gymnastics Team at the last Olympics was 20, and many gyms do not even offer lessons for athletes 18 and over.

Lugo-Walsh said the idea of taking up gymnastics in her 30s — and potentially being the only adult in the gym — made her feel awkward.

Then, when the COVID-19 pandemic and the nation's temporary transition to online schooling drastically changed Lugo-Walsh's life as a high school Spanish teacher, she began searching for things that would bring her joy.

"I realized gymnastics is something I've always wanted to do," she said. "Why was I not doing it?"

After calling every gymnastics gym she could think of in the Chicago suburbs where she lives, she signed up for private tumbling lessons in May 2021 at the only nearby gym that was willing to accommodate an adult.

Since then, she's learned to do front flips, back flips and the "perfect cartwheel."

"It's been so good for my mental health, and I get so excited to go to the gym every week," she said. "There's this constant feeling of pride because I made this happen, something I always wanted to do."

In late June, Lugo-Walsh attended Olympic medalist Chellsie Memmel's first adult gymnastics camp at M&M Gymnastics, the New Berlin gym owned by the Memmel family. In doing so, Lugo-Walsh met 70 other adults ranging from beginners to former elite gymnasts performing high-level Yurchenko vaults.

More than that, she became part of a burgeoning worldwide adult gymnastics community.

Coach John Wamser, who assisted Memmel at the camp, said participants spanned in age from recent high school graduates to athletes in their 50s.

Divided into groups based on skill level and experience, campers rotated between four event stations — vault, uneven bars, balance beam and floor — and a dance station. The agenda also included strength and conditioning exercises.

"The environment was incredibly positive, so inspiring," said Memmel, the 2005 World Champion and 2008 Olympic medalist. "Everybody wanted to learn. Everybody was encouraging everybody else, no matter the age, no matter the level."

Memmel said it was one of the most amazing weekends she's experienced in gymnastics.

"It was so cool to see ... that many adults who are so passionate about (gymnastics)," said 39-year-old Jackson resident Alison Lueck, another camp participant. "I didn't even realize so many adults had an interest in it. But after going to that camp, I'm pretty amazed."

Memmel's comeback

Since 2020, 34-year-old Memmel has attracted new attention for practicing and competing in elite-level gymnastics long past the traditional age of under 25.

After a highly successful career that boasted six World Championship medals, selection as an alternate on the 2004 Olympic team and a team silver medal at the 2008 Olympics, Memmel announced her then-retirement from gymnastics in 2012 at age 24.

She got married in 2013 and had two children, Dashel and Audrielle, in 2015 and 2017.

When the pandemic hit, Memmel returned to more structured gymnastics training after "testing how her body would feel" doing high-level gymnastics skills nearly a decade after retirement.

Memmel began posting videos of her training on social media under the hashtag #chellsiesadultgymnasticsjourney, as well as "Chellsie Challenge" videos, where she demonstrates advanced strength and balance workouts.

Memmel's workouts and videos have become extremely popular, garnering her over 130,000 Instagram followers and 35,000 subscribers on YouTube.

Her accomplishments in the gym have been even more impressive. Memmel returned to elite competition at the 2021 U.S. Classic in May. At 32, she was more than a decade older than fellow competitors like Suni Lee and Jordan Chiles.

More: She's 32, a mother and has been out of competitive gymnastics for nine years. Here's why Chellsie Memmel has her sights on another Olympics.

That June, Memmel competed in the 2021 U.S. National Gymnastics Championships.

Gina Paulhus — who runs adult-gymnastics.com and the 10,000-plus-person Just Like Fine Wine Adult Gymnastics Facebook group — said she's noticed Memmel's comeback has increased interest and involvement in adult gymnastics throughout the U.S. and the world.

But despite becoming the face of the growing adult gymnastics community, Memmel said she had no idea such a community even existed until very recently.

"It was honestly amazing and a little bit overwhelming," the Olympian said. "I didn't realize that I could have an impact like that just simply by sharing my story and doing what I love."

Memmel said knowing she could impact so many people so positively has been a "very humbling experience" and "the biggest bonus" to result from her comeback.

She began holding an adult gymnastics and fitness class at M&M and noticed people from all over the world reaching out to her on social media, asking if she'd host an adult camp.

"I wanted to do something since I feel like I'm a big voice in the adult gymnastics community now,” she said.

In planning for this summer's camp, Memmel said her goal was for about 40 gymnasts to sign up. Within 24 hours, 73 signed up. The sign-up period even produced a waitlist of 80 people, leading Memmel to schedule another camp for Aug. 12-14, which also filled up.

Memmel said she hopes to host the camp for years to come. In January, she and her family will host an AAU adult competition division for the first time at their annual M&M Challenge gymnastics meet.

It wasn't always a children's sport

The recent popularity of adult gymnastics comes as less of a surprise to Coach Wamser, who, in his 55-year coaching career, has coached adults for at least 30 years.

"Historically, gymnastics was done by adults," he said.

When German and Swiss immigrants came to America in the mid-1800s, they brought gymnastics with them. Adults in those countries used the sport for fitness and military training, Wamser explained.

"Most German immigrant communities had a Turnverein, and a Turnverein was a sports club where the primary activity was gymnastics," Wamser said. "They were in little towns all over the place, and there were probably 50 or 60 in Wisconsin."

Some Turnvereins evolved into existing American Turners societies like Milwaukee Turners on Vel Phillips Ave., which was established by German immigrants in 1853.

Every four years or so since the 1860s, Turnvereins throughout Europe and the U.S. held Turnfest, a gymnastics competition and festival for adults.

In 1893, Milwaukee held Turnfest. That competition attracted more than 8,000 adult gymnasts from across the world, Wamser said.

Turnfest continues to this day, and athletes Wamser has coached at Milwaukee Turners and Wildcard Gymnastics in Brookfield have taken part.

One of those athletes is Dianne Dagelen.

At 74 years old, Dagelen still performs mill circles, dismounts and jumps from low to high bar on uneven bars.

"The bars are my favorite," she said. "I'm not as agile as I used to be, but I still just love to fly.”

Dagelen started gymnastics at Milwaukee Turners when she was 29. She's practiced almost every week since and said, surprisingly, her 40s and 50s were her best gymnastics years.

It wasn't until around the time Dagelen started gymnastics that it became widely regarded as a youth sport, Wamser said.

Through the 1960s, most elite gymnasts were over the age of legal adulthood, but things changed in the 1970s with the success of gymnasts like Olga Korbut and Nadia Comăneci.

At 17, Korbut, representing the Soviet Union, brought home three gold medals and one silver at the 1972 Olympic Games in Munich.

Four years later at the 1976 Montreal Olympics, 14-year-old Comăneci scored the first perfect 10 in Olympic gymnastics history. The Romanian gymnast earned five medals at her Olympic debut.

In 1968, the median age of an Olympic gymnast was about 20. From 1976 to 2000, it was between 16 and 17.

As skills became more difficult and training more strenuous, gymnastics appeared to favor the young, and fitness-minded adults sought other pursuits.

Adult gymnastics today

"We were definitely the weird ones when we started," said Stephanie Minster, 38, a longtime adult gymnast and coach at Wildcard Gymnastics.

Wildcard has offered an adult gymnastics class and open gym since it opened 15 years ago. It's still one of less than five gyms statewide to offer adult programs.

When asked why other gyms don't offer such programs, Wildcard director Amy Grining said insurance issues have historically been a primary reason. Many gyms' insurance policies only cover athletes under 18 or 21 due to concerns that adults are more prone to injury.

Paulhus, who competed as an adult from 2006 to 2016, disagrees.

"Adults are actually more cautious because they have more to lose, and they are more fearful, generally, because they know how bad it can be to be hurt," she said. "I'm not convinced from the many, many adult teams I've seen that the injury rate is any higher."

Despite the concerns of some, Paulhus said the number of gyms offering adult programs nationwide is growing steadily. She maintains a list of adult class offerings on her website and said she's adding new gyms every month.

Additionally, more and more adults — including Wildcard athletes — are competing in gymnastics meets through the AAU Adult Division and other organizations like the National Association of Intercollegiate Gymnastics Clubs.

Even elite gymnasts are now trending older. Last year, for the first time in more than half a century, the average Olympic gymnast was in her 20s.

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This article originally appeared on Milwaukee Journal Sentinel: Olympian Chellsie Memmel inspires adults to return to gymnastics