A Safer Sport for All

Why Legal Action is the Next Logical and Necessary Step

Claire Heafford

In June 2020, the release of ‘Athlete A’ on Netflix and the subsequent Gymnast Alliance movement exposed the abuse in gymnastics for all the world to see. For a time following the release of the film, social media was awash with gymnasts from every continent speaking out about their personal experiences of abusive coaching practices and the heartbreak of their long-term personal trauma.    

While the allegations vary in their severity – two things have become abundantly clear.  Firstly, abuse in gymnastics is a worldwide problem that dates back over 30 years.  The abuse has clear links to the training methods that were popularised by the Eastern Bloc states of the USSR, Romania and Bulgaria, and 2020 is not the first time concerns around abuse have been raised and then dismissed. 

Secondly, from a safety perspective, the difference between gymnastics and other professional sports is that over the past 30 years, gymnastics has in many ways failed to evolve in line with the professional safety standards, basic employment conditions, or the broader context of equality and gender politics of other sports.  Where sports like Cricket, Boxing and Rugby have all taken steps to auto-correct following moments of trauma, gymnastics has consistently chosen to respond by denying wrongdoing and turning a blind eye to the unsafe practices that permeate its codes. 

So as 2020 draws to a close, and the initial wave of emotional testimonies begins to die down, it has become abundantly clear that British Gymnastics has neither the inclination nor ability to adequately tackle the issues at hand. How then, do we, the gymnasts, ensure that our message doesn’t just dissipate into the social media ether and our calls for reform are acted on to create a safer sport for all?  

To answer this question, it’s important to begin by considering how traumatic incidents, preventable deaths and accidents resulting from inadequate safety measures have created moments of reckoning and reform in multiple sporting contexts, including Formula One, NFL, rugby, cricket, boxing and football.   

In 1994, for example, the deaths of Roland Ratzenberger and Ayrton Senna in the San Marino Grand Prix led to numerous voluntary regulation changes, including changes to the cars and track designs. Similarly, in 2011 seven former NFL players brought a class action litigation against the NFL in respect of damage caused by long-term brain injury sustained in the course of their careers.  

This landmark concussion case resulted in increased public awareness of the ‘concussion crisis’ and most US states went on to pass legislation that requires education, removal of a concussed athlete from the field and a physician’s clearance before returning to play. This ruling has also had a significant impact on the development of concussion protocols in Rugby in the UK.

Further examples of reform in sport can also be found in boxing, following the brain haemorrhage of Michael Watson in 1991 and in cricket, following the death of Phillip Hughes in 2014.  What each of these cases shows is that where a sport doesn’t evolve, self-regulate or auto-correct, the law can be used to bring down a verdict and force public recognition around the stated harm.  

Back to the summer of 2020 – gymnastics is having its own moment of reckoning.  However, where other sports might have responded robustly, held up their hands and resolved to change, gymnastics appears to be kicking and screaming its way through this moment of reflection.   

For whatever reason – poor leadership, organisational mismanagement, or a sporting culture that actively supports child abuse – British Gymnastics has, over the past 6 months, declined the opportunity to instigate reform from within. What’s more, they’ve done so in plain sight while British journalists document every misfire, denial and passing of the buck.  

So as we look to 2021, and carry forward our intention to achieve reform for gymnastics with the aim of ensuring no other gymnasts are harmed through participation in our sport, what’s required next is a two-step plan. The first step is a civil legal proceedings.  The second step is a parliamentary review. And here’s why:  

For many in the UK, initially, the news that British Gymnastics was to launch an independent inquiry into abusive coaching practices was met with a resounding sense of positivity and relief.  Finally, gymnasts, parents and coaches felt that the powers that be were listening – and it was their time to speak. So speak they did – and by closing date, the Whyte Review, with the help of The British Athlete Commission, had received over 350 submissions. 

However, no sooner had the submission deadline been and gone, than a number of high profile gymnasts began to publicly express doubts about whether their decision to cooperate with the review was the right decision, and are unsure as to where the review will take them, given that there is currently no fixed date for the inquiry to be concluded, and it is difficult to see what change will follow, irrespective of the findings.   The Whyte Review also does not have private remedies in its scope, meaning that it cannot help individual gymnasts with the loss and damage that was inflicted on them.

This has left many gymnasts in limbo and feeling vulnerable since submitting evidence, with no sense of when they might receive a verdict on whether their grievance is judged to be legitimate.  Additionally, the parameters of the review are considered by many of the older generation of athletes to be too narrow, which some consider a deliberate obfuscation of key questions relating to the normalisation of abuse within the wider cultural history of the sport.   

Furthermore, while the Whyte review in the UK and the Larry Nassar case in the US have done much to highlight the issue of abusive coaching practices in gymnastics, to date – there has been little focus on the role FIG has played in creating, promoting and normalising abuse in gymnastics.   

From an international perspective, what the Gymnast Alliance movement shows us is the problem of abuse in gymnastics is not isolated to the UK and American administrations, but is in fact part of a larger pattern of abuse within the sport which spans the globe. FIG has many questions to answer and legal action by gymnasts in the UK has the potential to create waves where the Whyte Review seeks to calm the waters.  

For gymnasts who are seeking redress and reform on both a national and international level, it seems to me that legal action is both a warranted and necessary next step to achieving change within the sport.  In a number of cases, the allegations that have come out are so serious that the evidence needs to be heard in a court of law so that legislation can be given the opportunity to catch up with real-life child protection requirements, before we can even begin to imagine what a properly safe sport will look like in the future. 

It’s legislation, not recommendations, that will create lasting change and make those at the top stop and listen, in circumstances where history shows that they have previously turned a blind eye to child abuse and athlete cruelty.  

What legal action and a parliamentary review has the potential to do is  form a matrix of safety locks, which should be overseen by an independent ombudsman to whom gymnasts and parents can take their future complaints; an ombudsman who also has ultimate control over funding – and the power to cut funds when the sport is considered to be unsafe.  

So as 2020 draws to a close, let’s seize this moment, and turn the difficulties of the past six months into a moment of healing and hope for all. For those who have joined Hausfeld’s group claim, legal action is a way to create a fully transparent platform to ensure that gymnasts, past and present, have the opportunity for their voices to be heard, with proper legal representation and without the fear of reprisal. 

But for any coach, gymnast or parent currently questioning if legal action is the next logical and necessary step, this website has been set up as a resource to help you explore the complex questions at hand, and allow you to have your say.  

I therefore invite you to become a supporter of the Gymnasts For Change campaign, and join us as we delve behind the headlines, seek answers to our questions and resolutions to our complaints.   

Ultimately, while it remains to be seen if the current bodies in charge of oversight within our sport have the will or inclination to end the abusive coaching of athletes, what we the gymnasts know to be true, is that the way things are is not the way they have to be. 2020 is our opportunity to change the sport for the better and we invite you to be a part of the change.