British Gymnastics enabled a culture where young gymnasts were physically and mentally abused, shamed and humiliated in a system that repeatedly put the pursuit of medals over the care of children, a devastating report has found.
The review by Anne Whyte QC also makes for deeply uncomfortable reading for UK Sport, the funding body for British Olympic sports, which has admitted to Whyte that the welfare of athletes was not “front seat” until 2017.
Since then there have been many abuse scandals in sports such as cycling, rowing, bobsleigh and swimming. However, Whyte’s long awaited report into British Gymnastics, is far more damning than anything previously published.
“One wonders how many sporting scandals it will take before the government of the day appreciates it needs to take more action to protect children who participate in sport,” writes Whyte.
Her report, which is based on submissions from more than 400 people, describes a system where gymnasts were overstretched by coaches to the point of tears and injury, deprived of food and water and regularly humiliated in front of their peers.
“I heard extreme accounts of gymnasts hiding food, for example in ceiling tiles or under the bed in their rooms,” adds Whyte. “I received accounts of coaches checking hotel rooms ‘army style’ and travel bags for food.”
But it only hints at the abuse that Whyte says was initially caused by “long standing cultural problems” caused by the arrival of coaches from the former Soviet Union. Incredibly Whyte found that British Gymnastics kept no records of complaints from 2008 and 2016 while a “culture of fear” meant that many gymnasts were too scared to come forward.
Whyte also found that:
One gymnast reported that her coach had sat on her when she was seven years old. Another gymnast said they didn’t know how their legs didn’t “snap” when being stretched.
A former elite gymnast described being made to stand on a beam for two hours because she was frightened to attempt a particular skill. Others talked about being strapped to the bars for extended periods of time, “sometimes when in great distress”.
“Coaches went to damaging lengths to control what gymnasts ate and weighed, to the extent of searching luggage and rooms for food,” Whyte says.
What Whyte describes as the “tyranny of the scales” led to gymnasts suffering from eating disorders and associated mental health issues. “In one case, I was told that even when the coach was aware that the gymnast had an eating disorder, they continued to name and shame her in public,” she says.
There were also 30 submissions that related to sexual abuse but Whyte noted that this was not systemic and was taken more seriously by the organisation.
Forty per cent of submissions received by the review described physically abusive behaviour towards gymnasts, particularly during training. More than 50% of submissions reported an element of emotional abuse, also primarily during training. And 25% of those who contacted the review reported excessive weight management by coaches.
Before 2008, no British gymnast had ever won an Olympic medal. Since then Team GB has won 16 medals in the last four Games. But Whyte repeatedly stressed in her report, which cost £3m, that it had come at a terrible cost. However she did accept that the sport was undergoing changes under its new chief executive, Sarah Powell.
Following the publication of the report, Powell offered a full apology and promised she would change the sport for the better. “I had to speak to gymnasts this morning. And it was hard. Because you could see how it affected them. I looked them in the eye and said sorry. “I am sorry, to them for what they have experienced and their parents and those around them because they will also have been affected by this.”
“It is not acceptable. It’s emotional for me, I’m a mum and sport is not supposed to do this. This is a genuine apology, from the sport, from myself, from the leadership. We have to set a new path, a new roadmap. Gymnastics will be different because of the bravery of the young people who spoke up.”
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Powell accepted that the culture across the sport had to change. But she insisted that there are many clubs across the UK doing things the right way. “This is not everywhere,” she added. “There are great coaches, hundreds of thousands of young people enjoying the sport day in, day out.”
However, she was unable to say if anyone had taken the can - or whether the coaches responsible for the worst forms of abuse were still in the British system.
Jane Allen, who retired as CEO of British Gymnastics in December 2020, apologised. “It’s been very hard to hear the painful experiences shared by people in a sport that I’ve led and been dedicated to for so many years. Whilst a talented and committed team developed British Gymnastics in so many ways, there’s more that I should have delivered across our culture.
“I’m deeply sorry I didn’t do more for everyone – especially the athletes - to feel supported, able to speak up and heard. There’s nothing more vital. This was under my leadership and it should have been different.”
Whyte also raised concerns that UK Sport’s mission process had failed to identify any adverse or worrying cultural issues in a sport in the run up to the last three Olympic Games.
“The ungenerous interpretation, is that the Mission Process was window dressing for those sports, like gymnastics, where medals were realistically anticipated and that the medals mattered more than amber ratings and more than athlete welfare,” she added.
However, UK Sport chief executive Sally Munday denied that a cash for medals culture existed at the organisation.
“We reject the notion that there has ever existed cash for medals. Did I ever feel pressure to win medals at any cost, no. And frankly, if I did, I would not have applied for money in the first place.”
“There is no question that what we read in this report is upsetting and harrowing,” she added. “And no athlete, no gymnast, or person should have to experience abuse like that. But what Anne Whyte also acknowledges there are thousands of gymnasts who are having positive experiences. But this does not take away the fact that one case of abuse is too many.”
Whyte makes 17 recommendations for the sport - and identifies four key areas to “shift the focus of the sport to gymnast welfare and wellbeing”. They are: safeguarding and welfare; complaints handling; standards and education; governance and oversight.