Multiple gymnasts from around the world started speaking out about abuse they experienced and witnessed during their gymnastics careers. The release of “Athlete A” on Netflix served as the catalyst for this wave, although there are likely multiple reasons for why it happened now and why many gymnasts felt they were finally able to talk about their experiences. Gymnasts are calling their movement #GymnastAlliance. So far, athletes ranging from recreational to national-team level from multiple countries recounted their experiences of abuse and demanded change. In several countries, this led to launch of investigations and The Netherlands even went so far as to suspend the national team program until the end of the investigation.
Dr. Natalie Barker-Ruchti of Örebro University, Sweden has been researching gymnastics culture for over a decade and her current study focuses on #GymnastAlliance. She hopes that her studies will contribute to the much needed change in gymnastics culture. She is a part of The International Socio-Cultural research group on Women’s Artistic Gymnastics (ISCWAG). She talked to Gymnovosti about her research over the years and what she hopes to achieve with the current study.
Dr. Barker-Ruchti is a former gymnast and coach. She originally went into research thinking she wasn’t quite cut out to be a coach – too soft. However, studying sociology helped her realize the problem was the culture prevalent in gymnastics and this culture, in turn, became her major research interest:
“I was a gymnast myself. And then after that I also did some coaching and then at some point I moved to New Zealand and that’s when I did quite a bit of coaching there. At that time I thought that I would want to become a full-time coach, a professional coach. So, I started to look at what I might want to do in terms of educating myself. I ended up doing a degree in Sports Science. As part of that, I had discovered research, basically. I didn’t really know so much about that beforehand. My bachelor thesis was already on gymnastics and so were my Masters’ and my PhD. That was my passion, basically. My motivation from the beginning was to understand better my own experiences in gymnastics, but, of course, also the experiences of the others. While I was studying and still also coaching to finance my life, I started to really question coaching. What had happened was that I felt that I wasn’t cut out to be a tough [coach], or what I thought was necessary to be a coach in gymnastics, which was being tough. I simply couldn’t accept compromising the gymnasts’ safety or health or wellbeing. I could not do that. This, in turn, contributed to me going into research because I thought: well, I’m not not cut out for this. But then at the same time, I started to realize that I’m not actually the problem. It’s more the culture of gymnastics.”
When Dr. Barker-Ruchti started out, she realized there was a gap in research and that ethnographical studies of gymnastics culture simply did not exist:
“At the beginning when I started, there wasn’t much social science research [on gymnastics], the kind I wanted to do because I really wanted to document what goes on behind the scenes. And that’s why I did an ethnographic study in my PhD. That didn’t really exist at the time. Ethnographies existed in other areas, perhaps, even sports, but certainly not in gymnastics. It was more psychological studies. There was also a study in Germany that was actually titled something like “Oh, but it’s okay, I’ll do it again”, this type of discourse. It really was bothering me that this was being accepted, that the gymnasts said it was okay, that’s how it needs to be. I turned to the theories by Michel Foucault because I wanted to really critique the culture as well and not only document it. I wanted to explain it from a critical perspective.”
“And so in my PhD, I observed the gymnastics facility for a whole year and really got to see what goes on, on a week-to-week, day-to-day basis. While I was familiar with this context, it was still shocking. At times, I wanted to leave the gym, or I wanted to cry, or I wanted to go and hug the gymnast because I felt so let down that this was the reality. After that, I’ve done other types of research, non-gymnastics research, but it’s always been to understand what do these athletes learn while they’re in these contexts? What does it do to them short-term and long-term? And also, how can we do this differently? This really isn’t how things need to be, but at the same time, it was difficult to think how this could be done differently, because we didn’t really have any examples.”
One of her research projects titled “Coming of Age” focused on older gymnasts who were able to renegotiate the terms of their training with their coaches and continue their careers well into their adulthoods. Despite the fact that the number of older gymnasts is growing on the elite scene, Dr. Barker-Ruchti feels that those gymnasts often managed to thrive in spite of all the obstacles and not because they were supported by gymnastics institutions:
“This is such a global phenomenon, this way of training and coaching. I wanted to think it’s possible to do it in a different way, but I wasn’t really sure what that would look like. And then some years ago, it became very obvious that older gymnasts came onto the competition floor. I mean, there was Oksana Chusovitina, but there were other gymnast like Marta Pihan Kulesza and Isabelle Severino at the time. Beth Tweddle was a good example, then also Swiss gymnasts, because I’m originally from Switzerland, Ariella Kaeslin is another example. So, more and more. And at some point I realized, “Oh, well this, this isn’t something just happening once, this is more of a consistent phenomenon”. And so I initiated this Coming of Age research project where several researchers came together and we interviewed gymnasts that were at least 20 years old. That was a fantastic study – to hear from these adults, to learn what had changed for them as they had become adults. That is not to say that they didn’t train in those [old] ways, with early specialization and high intensity, when they were younger, but still, it was quite encouraging to see that this trend is happening and hear from the gymnasts how good that was. They had more control over their lives. They had more agency in deciding what was going on. They trained much, much less, for instance, so, they generally were healthier. And they had better relationships with coaches mainly because they demanded this.”
“The context may have demanded it, for example, they might have had to work or they were studying. So, they had less time available. But one quote that sticks out was one of the gymnasts who said, “You know, if you keep treating me like this, this isn’t going to work”. And the coach said, “Well, if that’s the case, that’s fine, but I don’t know how to do it. So you need to tell me, you need to show me”. So it really also showed that her coaches didn’t know how to do things differently. We also interviewed coaches of gymnasts who were older and also some judges. And this was really encouraging. Also now in relation to what’s going on right at the moment, there’s at least some research that shows that things can be done differently.”
“In the research publications [stemming from this project], we really called for gymnastics organizations but also individuals to be much more strategic in making sure that gymnasts can prolong their careers, because it was also quite clear from the interviews that we had conducted that these gymnast’s had, by some way or another, been able to prolong their careers. This wasn’t because the organizations had really cared for them and facilitated their continued careers. For instance, in one country, it was obvious that the funding was based on gymnasts being children and not adults who actually have costs. So they still had to live at home. They still had to work, which is ridiculous for an elite athlete in gymnastics.”
“The system really wasn’t prepared for older gymnasts. I think there’s still a huge opportunity for organizations to strategically put things into place so that gymnasts don’t need to be finished when they have done one Olympic games at the age of 16; they could do two or three Olympic games. And wouldn’t that be good for how a government has invested into their career so far? It would also be interesting to at one point run an economic study on how much it costs for a gymnast to go to one Olympic games and how that investment would pay out if they continued. It doesn’t have to be an Olympic games, but if they continued further. And also how that might affect the younger gymnasts, if you have a bigger group of gymnasts to train with. I mean, there’s all sorts of benefits of having a larger pool of gymnasts. In many countries, the pool is so small that governments, perhaps question why they should fund the elite gymnastics in the first place.”
A collaboration with stakeholders, especially with gymnastics authorities on national and international level could potentially lead to a wide implementation of research findings but Dr. Barker-Ruchti and her colleagues found those organizations to be mostly uncooperative:
“I and my colleagues have tried on numerous occasions to communicate, to, or engage with, or gain opportunities to present our research to gymnastics organizations. And by and large this hasn’t really worked. The FIG hasn’t really come towards us even though we feel that we’ve at least given it some try, and at the national levels as well. So that would be in itself an interesting topic to study: why has this been so difficult for this collaboration to take place? It’s been a bit of a battle, I’d say where we do our thing, we publish, but haven’t really been able to transfer or translate our findings into practice so much.”
“Journalists are often quite interested and they publish stuff, especially when an Olympic games happens or when something bad happens like now. But not really the organizations. One example is the Swedish gymnastics Federation. In 2011, when I moved here to Sweden, there was a situation here where gymnasts, but also the Olympic medical doctors gone to the press and said, “This isn’t normal, what’s happening here. They’re far too injured. They don’t react to pain.” And then gymnasts came forward and said how they were being treated. There was governmental pressure that the Federation changes this leadership and cultural problem. They have since worked very hard to do that. And they have also listened to me and others. So that there’s been a little bit of a door, but I can’t comment on how effective the changes have been.”
However, now that several national gymnastics federations launched investigations following gymnasts speaking out about abuse, there is some hope that organizations will be more open to the latest research on gymnastics culture. Dr. Barker-Ruchti knows that changing the culture won’t be easy and will take a long time, since it is rooted in assumptions and beliefs that can be difficult to change:
“I think national federations are under a huge amount of pressure to, to make a difference because they rely on the funding from their governments. And I think there’s this will create at least some change. My general criticism is that some of the changes that are being suggested at the moment could possibly be symptom treatment rather than actually looking at the underlying problems that cause those symptoms, such as the assumption that a gymnast must be a child or that you must learn your complex gymnastics movements before you become an adult, or that puberty is somehow going to interfere and so on.”
“Some of those assumptions are very deep seated. They’re very difficult to change; it’s the culture that needs changing and changing a culture isn’t easy. I was also thinking of doping: we can have policies and laws and testing and punishment, and yet athletes still dope because there’s still underlying assumptions that make them think that it’s worthwhile to get a competitive advantage.”
“So I would like to see more work on changing those assumptions. I get that it might be good to increase the minimum age of going to the Olympic Games from 16 to 18 or to have registers of coaches that are abusive so that they’re not being employed again. I get that those are immediate actions that are necessary now to stop what’s going on. But in the long term, if people don’t know how to do things differently because they’re still influenced by these deep-seated assumptions, then we will always find that the problems won’t go away. So I think there needs to be more education of coaches, and officials, and parents, and gymnasts as well. We almost need to reinvent gymnastics, and, of course, that is much more difficult. Regarding the International Federation, in Georgia’s latest paper she looked at the relationship between the IOC and the FIG.” [Dr. Georgia Cervin is a former elite gymnast from New Zealand who is now researching gymnastics culture].
“There’s quite a bit of money that flows from the IOC to the FIG. And so the FIG is doing what the IOC is telling them to do. If the IOC doesn’t tell them to do something different, then, perhaps, they’re not doing that. So, I can see how things can be complicated for an organization such as the FIG to actually really tackle those problems, because they might think that jeopardizes their business or their image. Yet, I would think that it could also strengthen the way that they’re perceived by the public.”
Dr. Barker-Ruchti sees #GymnastAlliance as a unique phenomenon that can contribute to the change of culture and hopes to recruit gymnasts who spoke out for her study:
“This has never happened in any sport that so many gymnasts from the US or so many athletes from around the world are speaking out at the same time about the same thing. It’s particularly surprising in a sport like gymnastics, where athletes don’t have a voice that they have found their voices and have the courage to speak out. I’ve been looking into literature on the #MeToo movement and feminist literature on victims of abuse and speaking out. And it really tells of how with social media now you can become part of a community that is supportive, you feel connected and confirmed that your experiences are real, and they are true, and they were abusive, and that’s wrong, and it’s not your fault that they happened. That can also create a bit of political activism.”
“I think we see this in the States with gymnasts like Aly Raisman and others who are really doing more than speaking out. Now they have taken us to a new, a different level or a much more activist level. And I think we’re starting to see this in New Zealand, for instance, but also Australia. So it would really be nice to be able to talk to some of those gymnasts to understand: Why did you speak out? What was the speaking out like, what were some of the difficulties, how did you get support? What did it do to you? You know, in terms of this connection and confirmation and what are you hoping to achieve? What is your goal with this? Is it a personal goal of, perhaps, healing and, or is it to make a difference? A gymnast went from who never speaking out on a daily basis to going public globally, saying this has happened to me and now I’m becoming an activist to create change. I don’t think we would see this in any other sports. I think the research would also contribute to general abuse research and speaking out, not only speaking out in sports.”
If you are a gymnast who spoke out about abuse as a part of #GymnastAlliance and are interested in participating in the study, please contact Dr. Barker-Ruchti at Natalie.Barker-Ruchti@oru.se
Participation is anonymous. Please, see more information about the study below.
gymnastalliance_Information-sheet.docx
