What’s Wrong With Women’s Gymnastics Can Be Fixed in Five Steps

Natasha Billawala
Sep 6, 2018 · 4 min read

In order to reach the pinnacle of their sport, gymnasts must push the lines of what a human body can endure. Yet the governing bodies that oversee gymnastics have never held themselves up to the same standard of perfection. Instead, mediocre leadership, corrosive coaching and an inept code of points continues to flourish. Even the biggest sexual abuse scandal in sports’ history hasn’t been enough for organizations to take a hard look inward.

Based on their actions since the scandal unfolded, USA Gymnastics (USAG), Fédération Internationale de Gymnastique (FIG) and the U.S. Olympic Committee (USOC) seem more invested in incremental change and maintaining a status quo. There is a lot of talk about protecting people and no discussion with the gymnasts themselves. A large chasm exists between what these organizations think is appropriate for athletes and the reality of what addresses gymnasts’ well-being. It is a refusal to integrate this disconnect that is strangling the sport. It’s time for all of us — from coaches to parents to athletes to fans — to continuously demand change so that gymnastics can transcend its abusive past.

Here are five steps that can propel this popular and highly profitable sport forward.

1). Acknowledgement — Recognize that there’s been a culture of abuse from the inception of the sport. Gymnastics rose out of communist countries that had a “medals at all costs” mentality. Coaches didn’t care who they broke or how they won. It was easy to discard a gymnast, because there was a throng of athletes ready to take her place. It’s no wonder that this attitude carried over into the United States.

2). Accountability — USAG, FIG, and the USOC created an environment that allowed mental, physical and sexual abuse to thrive. If they intend to have credibility and build relationships based on trust and respect, they must acknowledge they allowed abusers in the sport because their mindset was solely based on winning.

Tell gymnasts you’re sorry. Tell them an abusive environment will no longer be tolerated, and then detail your actions going forward with more than boiler plate statements. How people respond to abuse can be just as traumatizing as the abuse itself. Have the courage to admit your methods were wrong.

Find a training center worthy of America’s best gymnasts. Provide experts whose approach supports the mind, body, and spirit. Furthermore, take a page out of UCLA Gymnastics Coach Valerie Kondos Fields’ playbook — care about your athletes as a people first, gymnasts second.

3). Bring back the 10 — When commentators have to use color-coded symbols to explain a good routine from an average routine, you’ve lost your audience. Most people do not know or care what a 14.000 means. A 10 is easy to understand and generates excitement. It’s no surprise that eliminating this standard of perfection has had disastrous results.

Women’s gymnastics is held hostage by the open-ended code — a code that disregards artistry in favor of a ruthless amount of difficulty. The governing bodies have been so focused on creating a robotic scoring system that artistry has become optional. They have forgotten that it was the strive for excellence that made the sport great.

Reengineer the code so that artistry, risk and originality are evenly rewarded. Stop creating bizarre deductions that endanger athletes, such as encouraging them stand on one leg before a tumbling pass or forcing them to land on both feet without lunging. Gymnasts must compete tremendous difficulty, in a loud arena, where every move determines whether they reach their Olympic dream. Yet we make this process as arduous as possible. Compare this to a sport like tennis, where the entire stadium stays quiet before someone serves.

4). Reinstate compulsories — Compulsories set the good apart from the great and created a competitive environment. These exercise grounded technique, execution, form, and amplitude. Since their elimination after the 1996 Olympic Games, there have been more injuries, including ACL and Achilles tendon tears. Today gymnasts chuck skills that are ugly (I’m talking about you, wolf turn) and dangerous (Hello, Amanar), without any kind of precision, all in an effort to raise their difficulty score. We’ve gone from exciting all-around competitions to rather obvious outcomes.

Go all the way back to 1989 code, and you’ll find an incredible blend of difficulty and artistry. And if 2016 Olympic Champion Simone Biles, undoubtedly the strongest athlete to compete gymnastics says, [the sport] “…is hard mentally and physically,” then you know something is off balanced.

5). Teach consent, boundaries, and personal responsibility — Empowering people starts with giving them tools that allow them to communicate their needs. A brutal competitive environment is one that forces athletes to disregard their safety and insight, because they believe they will be penalized for voicing their concerns.

Let’s have classes that define boundaries, consent, and personal responsibility. Give athletes the opportunity to role-play situations, so they learn that “no means no and yes means yes!”. Any kind of uncertainty is a no and a time to ask for more explanation.

It’s important for athletes to understand that they are responsible for their lives, and they have the right to create a boundary of what does and does not feel safe to them. Coaches must spot gymnasts during training, so it’s vital that gymnasts know the difference between safe touch and mistreatment and to have a way of discussing issues without fear of repercussion. The likelihood of abuse will diminish when coaches, parents and athletes are on board with making these topics a priority.

Welcome to a place where words matter. On Medium, smart voices and original ideas take center stage - with no ads in sight. Watch
Follow all the topics you care about, and we’ll deliver the best stories for you to your homepage and inbox. Explore
Get unlimited access to the best stories on Medium — and support writers while you’re at it. Just $5/month. Upgrade