In a response to the wave of disquiet and disgust, Jane Allen, CEO of British Gymnastics has stated, “Whilst we acknowledge there have been inadequate practices along the way, we have worked tirelessly to try and eradicate them.”

I must admit that I just laughed when I read this, but, to be fair, let’s consider the recent evidence:

2017 was also a dramatic year in gymnastics circles. Nassar was on trial, senior American gymnasts were speaking out on abuse, and even British gymnasts, such as the enormously respected Dan Keatings, began to find their voice. The Guardian newspaper published several shocking articles detailing emotional and physical abuse in British gyms and the serial failure of British Gymnastics to deal with it. A culture of fear, of bullying and manipulation, was beginning to be laid bare.

All this came on top of abuse scandals in other sports, football, tennis, cycling, swimming and the Select Committee for Culture Media and Sport launched an investigation. As part of proceedings the committee invited the then Under-Secretary of State for Sport, Tracey Crouch, to report to them.

This meeting was televised (you can watch the full proceedings here). After some discussion of the situation in other sports Damian Collins (Chair) asked about British Gymnastics:  

Dan Keatings had only been retired for a few months at that point. Crouch had somehow been convinced that Jane Allen was ‘new in post’, the implication being that Dan Keatings experience happened under a different ‘watch’ and that Allen, as a ‘new broom’ would sweep BG’s house clean of abuse. The inconvenient truth is however, that at the time of this statement, Jane Allen had been CEO of British Gymnastics for 7 and a half YEARS, a period that included all of Keatings’ elite career (and certainly the period he describes as the worst), and all of the accusations laid out in the Guardian’s series of articles.

Senior coaches who spoke to the Guardian had also made their thoughts on the matter of Jane Allen very clear. They called for Allen’s resignation, claiming her “appalling leadership” has created a “culture of fear” where people are afraid to speak up about athlete welfare failings for fear of reprisals.

I felt dreadful for Keatings. I understood what it had taken to blow the whistle, and what I’m sure had been his  greatest fear had come true. His complaints were summarily dismissed and nothing was going to happen. Worse, as I am sure Keatings also realised, this would further discourage others from coming forward.

But what about since then? Fast forward to the latest British Gymnastics WAG Performance Pathway Symposium that took place in late February this year, not long before Corona virus brought everything to a halt. The PP symposiums are headline events described by BG as “practical and theory sessions designed to provide coaching insight to deliverers from across the community”. So, who did BG invite to set the tone for the new decade? Ex National Coach for Gymnastics Australia, Peggy Liddick.

For those of you who don’t know, Liddick stepped aside from her 20-year-long stint as National Coach for Gymnastics Australia at the end of 2016 having previously coached, assisting Steve Nunno, American superstar Shannon Miller. The 1990s were a ‘heady’ time in American gymnastics. The now notorious Karolyi’s were in their ascendency, as was an increasingly brutal culture of abuse. Joan Ryan’s 1995 expose Little Girls in Pretty Boxes: The Making and Breaking of Elite Gymnasts and Figure Skaters paints a chilling picture including explicit criticism of coaches Bela Karolyi and Steve Nunno. An image corroborated by accounts in Claudia Miller’s 1999 book Shannon Miller: My Child, My Hero.

Now, far be it from me to try to tell you what sort of a coach Liddick might be and the reputation she might have, so I thought I would leave it to two highly respected international gymnastics commentators, Spencer Barnes and Jessica O’Beirne of the podcast GymCastic. In this podcast from June 2018 (#310), Spencer and Jessica are discussing who might be selected as the new USA National Team Coordinator. Jessica has heard on the grapevine that Liddick is being considered. This is their reaction:

Spencer Barnes: You don’t want anyone who is even vaguely associated with the old school, Peggy Liddick is very old school….it is the way things used to be done [i.e. culture of abuse], and the most important thing is that you bring in someone who is not tainted by the mistakes of the past.

Jessica is particularly forthcoming…

Jessica O’Beirne “I would say that if you even interviewed Peggy you should be fired. That’s how strongly I feel about Peggy (being considered ), you have no clue what you’re doing, and you have never talked to a gymnast who was coached by her in the last five or ten years. That’s just the truth…..bring back Marta (Karolyi) over Peggy Liddick! That’s how strongly I feel about Peggy Liddick and her recent coaching style.”

At the very least then, having Peggy Liddick to speak was a, how do I put this, controversial choice for an organization seeking to move forward, but it is perhaps easier to understand when you discover that Jane Allen was CEO of Australia Gymnastics from 1997 to 2010 and that she and Peggy Liddick were therefore close colleagues for 13 years.

So…not the best look perhaps, but what did Liddick actually have to say to our coaches? Needless to say I wasn’t there (although I do welcome anyone who was or BG itself to offer a video or transcript of the event). However, concerned coaches were and revealed some of what they heard. I will focus on the part of Liddick’s presentation entitled “Adversity”. Adversity, in all shapes and forms is part of life and is something that all athletes must face and overcome, and you can imagine how vital the input of a psychology-informed, positive coach might be, so this seemed like a great topic for BG coaches.  However, it was here that Liddick regaled her audience with details of how she and fellow coach Nunno overcame ‘adversity’ in the form of ‘managing’ a number of injuries sustained by their athlete, Shannon Miller. For example, in an accident on bars, then 15 year old Miller dislocated her elbow and fractured a small segment of bone that is the attachment point for the ligaments that stabilise the elbow during stress. A potentially devastating injury with the 1992 Olympic trials only weeks away. Various treatment options were offered by the orthopedic consultant. Miller’s coaches’ preference was for a particular type of surgery involving a small metal screw. Under considerable pressure (according to Liddick) Miller’s father finally acquiesced to the coaches and surgeons, however, said Liddick, Shannon’s mother still not convinced (something Liddick attributed to her religious beliefs) decided to take a short break to think and get some coffee. Now we come to Liddick’s proud teaching moment, they grabbed that chance to rush Shannon into surgery before her mother could come back to possibly stop them. It was made clear that this was in keeping with their philosophy of coaching. Another incident was also detailed where a scaphoid fracture was treated as a mere inconvenience, it was strapped (and never properly treated) and the competition went on. At no point, I am informed, did Liddick qualify her statements, the takeaway was to be that you, as the coach, need to do whatever you think you need to do to get your athlete (almost invariably a child) competing when you want them to.

Seriously. How can this example be touted at a premier BG coaching event as a standard for overcoming ‘adversity’? It belongs in a talk on “Horrors of The Past We Must Never Repeat”.  All the worse because this EXACT culture is alive and well in British Gymnastics gyms and it is a culture that comes down from the TOP. By the way, this attitude was not at all shocking to me, nor will it be to many of you. I have many stories I could tell you (and HAVE told to BG) of such practice. It is commonplace in many gyms to have children training and competing on injuries, including fractures, either because they are directly forced by their coach or because the child is too frightened to say they are in pain.

Finally, back to Jane Allen’s response. Wishy-washy statements about “inadequate practices” simply won’t cut it. British Gymnastics, and its leadership, has for years knowingly sustained a culture that they believe is vital to their success, but that results in untold, often life-long, physical and emotional damage to children and young adults. British Gymnastics needs to be very clear about exactly which practices and which cases they now feel they dealt with inadequately. They need to openly and cleanly part ways with the “Culture of Fear” which they have repeatedly denied exists, not least because in doing so, they are in effect, gaslighting thousands of former and current gymnasts who have suffered, and continue to suffer.

In the years I have spent trying to ensure that no more children suffer as mine did, I feel I have learned to understand British Gymnastics and its leadership. Its decisions, its statements, its actions only make sense when you understand that it will do anything to sustain itself as an organization. It has no real interest in the gymnasts it purports to represent (at any level) other than them being the means to sustain itself. Please, please do what you can to seize this moment, it really is time for change.

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