The "other things" had consumed her for years. Yet when the COVID-19 pandemic hit last spring, Memmel suddenly found herself in an empty gym with time on her hands. So she started fooling around: a skill here and there. Momentum built. Her body, which she says is "stronger now than it's ever been" responded. Muscle memory returned.

Her father, Andy, watched with equal parts admiration and bemusement as Memmel shared video of her fooling around with the "gymternet", the sport's fervent online community. He was impressed, but when she mentioned getting serious, her coach didn't exactly jump at the idea.

"I pushed pretty hard to see if it was even possible from a gymnastics standpoint," Andy Memmel said. "I had no interest in doing this for 'I just want to do this for adult gymnastics, or this is fun.' If she's going to make a run at it, let's do it properly."

That meant no shortcuts. Getting back to her level as a teenager wouldn't be enough. The sport has marched forward during her break. Memmel knew she had to evolve along with it.

She has. There's a whole new bar routine. Upgrades on both floor exercise and vault, where she's working on a "Cheng"－named after Chinese great Cheng Fei－that's impressed USA Gymnastics high-performance team coordinator Tom Forster. She's experimenting on beam, working on a skill that－if she pulls it off in competition－would bear her name in the Code of Points.

"She hasn't lost a step," Andy Memmel said.