A parent tells us how gymnastics starts off as you would expect, fun and exciting but then how it morphs into something else and how you, as a parent, can lose sight and control of what’s happening. It all starts so subtly an excited 5/6 yr old who loves gymnastics, the coach identifies the talent,…
This gymnast was prompted to speak out when she saw a prominent athlete from her old gym thanking the very coaches who’d abused her and left her with a lifelong injury for the wonderful, ‘healthy’ environment they’d created. This was in the wake of Athlete A. So I really didn’t think I would end up…
Inspired by others speaking out, a parent wrote to us with their experience of Acrobatic Gymnastics: “I’m hearing terrible stories about Acro gymnastics. You’re not hearing them because people are terrified (literally) to speak out, even anonymously. They say acro is so toxic, ‘incestuous’ and cult-like that they feel certain they will be identified. Should…
Another harrowing account from a guest. Sadly, we know of many young lives that could have been saved from long-term physical and mental injury had BG acted when they received this complaint. Who knows, this coach could still be in a gym near you… To preface this account – I’ve tried to include rough dates…
The world of ‘acro’ gymnastics is a small and intense one that first came to prominence when Spellbound won Britain’s Got Talent. Very few ‘accro’ gymnasts or parents have dared to speak out publicly even anonymously as they are afraid of the retribution that might follow. Hopefully, with the support of the rest of us,…
We’ve been talking a lot about gymnastics the past few days and I asked one of my daughters what her worst gym memory was, wondering which of the awful things that I knew she’d endured she might choose. She surprised me though, and immediately picked something that happened not to her, but to her teammate….
With permission from Marco Knippen A tough regime was to yield international success at the top. The harrowing harvest was pure torment. Top-level gymnastics in the Netherlands has come to be synonymous with fear, abuse, repression, humiliation and ultimately trauma, a price no victim wants to pay. The terror at the top isn’t limited to…
When this survivor wrote out her story, she told us “Writing down some of my story feels like a weight has been lifted, I had no idea how much this was keeping me down“ I moved to a new club when I was around 11 years old because their training schedule meant that I no…
Abuse in gymnastics isn’t just a UK or American problem. Whatever the country, the experience is the same sadly. For a long time, when asked what sport I was doing, I would reply proudly “I’m a gymnast”. I grew up, thinking I would go to the Olympics. Because that is the goal, right? The one…