Published July 29, 2021 on Defector
“It’s when you are getting ready to do something, and you have done it, how many times, especially her, and you get in the air and you just can’t or you don’t remember,” says gymnast Chellsie Memmel, who won a silver medal at the 2008 Olympics. “Your body and your brain are fighting each other and it is completely and utterly disorienting because you really don’t know where you are in the air. It is incredibly scary and incredibly dangerous with how much height that she is getting on vault or on floor.”
Memmel struggled to find the words to accurately describe this phenomenon, which is feared and dreaded by gymnasts at every age and level. “It is just crazy,” she said. “It is really hard.”