Gymnastics abuse: Whyte Review finds physical and emotional abuse issues were ‘systemic’
Warning: This article contains some description of graphic injuries and abuse.
Issues of physical and emotional abuse within gymnastics in Britain were “systemic”, an independent investigation has found.
The Whyte Review, co-commissioned by UK Sport and Sport England, was released on Thursday and found gymnast wellbeing and welfare “has not been at the centre of British Gymnastics’ culture”.
Athletes were made to train on injuries, punished for needing the toilet, sat on by coaches, shouted and sworn at and had their bags searched for food.
The review said the difficulties now facing British Gymnastics, the sport’s national governing body, are “borne of inadequate practice and procedure”, and reflect a culture which was the product of “the way in which people behaved and were allowed to behave”.
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There was a sense, it added, that British Gymnastics had “not only failed to prevent or limit such behaviours but had condoned some of them in the pursuit of national and international competitive success”.
The former chief executive of British Gymnastics, Jane Allen, who retired in December 2020, was criticised in the report for a “lack of leadership” and an “organisational failure to appreciate the central importance of athlete welfare”.
Read more here https://www.bbc.co.uk/sport/gymnastics/61796129