Three-time champion gymnast Chaney Neu recovering from knee surgery

Right now, Champlin Park's Chaney Neu isn't thinking about winning another Class 2A all-around state gymnastics championship, something she's done in each of the three previous seasons.

She'd settle for just doing a cartwheel.

Neu suffered a serious injury to her right knee on Mother's Day — tearing her meniscus, MCL and ACL — and has been in recovery since.

"I can't get my range of motion back. I thought I'd be running by now, basic stuff," she said. "Most of the summer, I just stayed in my bedroom. My mom started calling it my dungeon."

The problem had been a buildup of scar tissue in the injured knee. She had a second surgery to remove excess scar tissue in August, which further pushed out her recovery.

Will she be able to compete this season?

"The doctors don't know yet," Neu said. "They just say to focus on my rehab and then they'll give me a timeline."

"The official statement we're making is: Due to complications and the need for an additional surgery to repair her knee, the recovery timeline won't allow Chaney to safely compete this year," Wynia wrote in an e-mail.

Neu, who scored the first perfect 10 in state meet history when she nailed a vault in the Class 2A individual competition in February, has been keeping herself busy by doing things she has never had the opportunity to do. That includes helping out as a team manager, imparting wisdom where she can.

"One of my best friends on the team, Emma Saksa, always starts laughing when I do," Neu said. "She always says, 'Chaney, I can't take you seriously.' "

Neu got a part-time job, working at a pet hotel in Maple Grove. And she got to watch school friends compete because she wasn't sweating away hours in a gym.

"I got more time to watch my other friends' sports. I went to every soccer game of one of my friends," she said.

It's also given her an appreciation for the sport that she may have lacked. "I did take it for granted. It's weird to be out of it."

As for defending her title in less than three months?