By: Tiffany Zhang

A review by lawyer Anne Whyte showed widespread evidence that many British Gymnastics athletes, 75 percent of whom were under the age of 12, were not properly taken care of or treated appropriately, and were put into dangerous situations.

The review, which was conducted between August, 2008 and August, 2020, consisted of over 400 comments and more than 100 interviews about British Gymnastics. 133 of those comments were from current and former gymnasts.

This evidence consisted of people saying how their health and well-being were not their coaches’ top priority. They also expressed how abusive their coaches could be.When young gymnasts couldn’t do specific moves or asked to go to the bathroom, they would be yelled at and even sat on by their coaches.

Many former gymnasts said that the way the coaches at Britain Gymnastics treated them affected their mental health in a horrible way. Nicola Paver, a former Team Great Britain, gymnast said that the things the coaches did to kids was child abuse.

The report also criticized former British Gymnastics boss Jane Allen, who left that position in 2020, for “lacking leadership” and not caring about the gymnast’s well-being.

“I want to wholeheartedly apologize to the gymnasts who have suffered as a result of us not working to [meet] the standards we set ourselves. We are sorry… We will change gymnastics for the better,” said Sarah Powell, the current boss of Britain gymnastics.

The organizations said that it “deeply apologize[s]” for what had happened to former and current gymnasts. Some organizations, however, want them to do more, like limit how many hours gymnasts can practice.

Although Britain Gymnastics has said that they will do better, the campaign group Gymnasts For Change believes that the report Anne Whyte made on Britain Gymnasts was “appalling” and that the recommendations it contained were not strict enough