BBC RADIO 4 WOMEN’S HOUR 24/10/2022 KRUPA PADDY

British Gymnastics have just announced ‘Reform 25’, their 40 point response to the ‘damning’ Whyte Review. Claire Heafford co-founder of Gymnasts for Change joins Krupa Paddy, along with Sarah Powell the new CEO of British Gymnastics, to discuss the announcement. Claire says that, broadly speaking, it is a positive step forwards but worries that it may be performative rather than substantive, stating that there are still 300 cases on the books which have not yet been looked at.

(Timestamp: 35:56)

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BBC LONDON RADIO 18/10/2022 EMMA JONES

Four months after the Whyte Review, which revealed a culture of fear in which the welfare of gymnasts was ignored in the pursuit of success, British Gymnastics have announced they are going to name banned coaches as part of their plans for a zero tolerance on abuse. Claire Heafford, co-founder of Gymnasts for Change, discusses the announcement with Emma Jones.

(Timestamp: 08:00)

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ABC MELBOURNE
09/08/22

Australian campaigners dispute Gymnastics Australia claims that asking former athletes to sign an NDA ahead of discussions about abuse claims was intended to create a "safe space".

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BBC RADIO 5 LIVE, COLIN MURRAY 21/06/2022

Claire Heafford, cofounder of Gymnasts for Change, and The Guardian’s Sean Ingle talk about the Whyte Report and abuse within British Gymnastics with Colin Murray. Rachael Denhollander then discusses accountability and how it is possible that this abuse was allowed to happen in the first place.

(Timestamp: 34:00)

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SPORT UNLOCKED 17/06/2022

Episode 73 of Sport Unlocked, the podcast dissecting the week's sports news issues with interviews and insight from Rob Harris, Martyn Ziegler and Tariq Panja. Sport Unlocked discuss the suffering of young gymnasts in Britain. They are joined by Nicole Pavier, one of the athletes who sparked the review that has now set out the culture of physical and emotional abuse by coaches in British gymnastics.

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IMPOSTERS PODCAST
17 /06/ 2022

Shawn Johnson East shares how she struggled finding her identity beyond gymnastics after retiring from competition. She talks disordered eating, the effect that external pressures and a search for validation had on her self-image, and how she has learnt to accept that she no longer needs to maintain an unrealistic self-image to please a public hungry for who is was when she was 16 years old.

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BBC: THE SPORTS DESK 17/06/2022

As the damning Whyte Review reveals a culture of abuse and fear in British Gymnastics, The Sports Desk asks what the sport can do to restore its reputation. With many other sports reeling from welfare scandals, they discuss how far coaches should go to push elite athletes, especially when they are children. They hear from Paralympic icon Tanni Grey-Thompson and former GB gymnasts Jennifer McIlveen and Hannah Whelan.

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BBC RADIO 4: WEEKEND WOMAN’S HOUR 17/06/2022

Following a two-year investigation into bullying, abuse, and discrimination, the Whyte Review into British gymnastics is finally published. Claire Heafford, co-founder and campaign director of Gymnasts for Change, joins Anita Rani to discuss its contents.

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TIMES RADIO BREAKFAST 17/06/2022 CHLOE TILLEY

Jennifer McIlveen OLY, who represented Great Britain in the 2012 summer Olympics, shares her experiences of the ‘culture of fear and abuse’ in British Gymnastics in the aftermath of the Whyte Report. She states that the belief of Gymnasts For Change is that happier and healthier gymnasts will perform better and be physically and mentally able to achieve.

(Timestamp: 3:06:38)

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LBC SHELAGH FOGARTY 16/06/2022

Following the publishing of the damning Whyte Report into abuse in British gymnastics, former gymnast Nicole Pavier shares her experience inside the organisation that ‘put medals above welfare’.

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BBC RADIO 4 / PM WITH EVAN DAVIS 16/06/2022

Claire Heafford discusses the shocking Whyte Report with Evan Davis. She states that this is an opportunity for the sport of gymnastics to take a good hard look at itself and move towards a new coaching culture which is athlete centred and, importantly, puts welfare at the heart of all activities within gymnastics.

(Timestamp: 23:00)

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BBC RADIO 5 LIVE
16/06/2022

Claire Heafford, co-founder of Gymnasts for Change, discusses recommendations in the aftermath of the damning Whyte Report alongside Baroness Tanni-Grey Thompson. Heafford suggests that the Whyte Report needs to be the beginning of a good hard look at the legislation that exists around child abuse and child protection within sports settings.

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BBC RADIO 2 JEREMY VINE 16/06/2022

A culture of fear, cruel behaviour, excessive physical force, and extreme dieting has been revealed within British Gymnastics. Former gymnasts Eloise Jotischky and Claire Heafford, cofounder of Gymnasts For Change, speak to Jeremy Vine about their experiences.

(Timestamp: 35:38)

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02/06/2022

Dominique Dawes once felt so controlled by her coach, Kelli Hill, that she said Hill terrified her into silence by threatening to send Dominique to "the Karolyi Ranch," the highly-regarded but fiercely intimidating program run by icons Martha and Bela Karolyi. It's a culture Dawes wants to change. As a 45-year-old mother of four, Dawes is speaking out about the "fear, shame and silence" of world-class gymnastics. Dawes, who competed in the Games in '92, '96 and 2000, said she may never "coach an Olympian" in her Dominique Dawes Gymnastics Academy, but she "wants to see joy and laughter back to our beautiful sport." She shares her thoughts on Simone Biles, Larry Nassar and getting her degree at the University of Maryland. As Helena said in Midsummer Night's Dream, "Though she be little, she is fierce."

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ALYSSA ROENIGK & BONNIE FORD

A seven-part story about the influential coaching duo of Bela and Martha Karolyi, how they transformed women’s gymnastics in the United States, and the steep price of all that gold. Reported by Alyssa Roenigk and Bonnie Ford.

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THE END OF SPORT, EPISODE 28, PART I

DR GEORGIA CERVIN

In the first of a two-episode interview, Johanna dives into a crucial conversation with Dr. Georgia Cervin that is almost completely left out of ESPN’s 30 for 30 podcast account of gymnastics culture in Heavy Medals: how the international history of women’s artistic gymnastics helped lead to the sport’s abusive culture today. Cervin traces the sport’s harmful core beginning with its femininity-obsessed and racist foundations in International Gymnastic Federation (FIG)’s Code of Points. She explains how the female leaders of FIG used the Code of Points partly to dictate and ensure that the sport—and thus its female athletes—conformed to the IOC’s Western notions of white femininity.

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THE END OF SPORT EPISODE 28, PART II

DR GEORGIA CERVIN

In the second episode with Georgia Cervin on the international history of women’s artistic gymnastics, we tackle the topic of abuse and especially sexual abuse in the sport. Georgia explains how contrary to contemporary popular media portrayals, American gymnastics’ coaching culture was rife with abusive elements before the Karolyi’s and Nasser arrived on the scene, as famous gymnast Jennifer Sey has repeatedly spoken about in her published work and public speaking. The Karolyi’s built on the cultural foundations of American gymnastics when they arrived, thereby contributing to—but not instigating—the abuse of girl gymnasts.

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THE END OF SPORT, EPISODE 29

GEZA POZSAR

In the first part of this two part interview with former choreographer for Béla and Martha Karolyi, Geza Pozsar takes us through his experiences living in Romania and working for the famous gymnastics’ duo in the 1970s and 1980s. It covers the history about the Karolyi’s and the Communist Romanian sport system that is normally left out of every Western media portrayal of the Romanian coaching duo.

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THE END OF SPORT EPISODE 30

GEZA POZSAR

In the explosive second part of this two part interview with former US national gymnastics team choreographer and long-time Karolyi collaborator Geza Pozsar, all three hosts and guest delve into what the Karolyis reveal about gymnastics culture in communist Europe and the capitalist US. Geza powerfully makes the case that Bela Karolyi's abusive methods were a function of his deficiencies in technical knowledge, for which he overcompensated through overtraining and harsh discipline.

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BBC RADIo 4: WOMAN’S HOUR

12/03/2022

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BBC RADIO 4: WOMAN’S HOUR

12/03/2021

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BBC RADIO 4: WOMAN’S HOUR
18/07/2020

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SHIFT MOVEMENT PODCAST: JEN SEY & DAVE TILLEY IN CONVERSATION

12/01/2021

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