By: Alice Dai

The article, “British Gymnastics ‘Must Do More’ to keep Children Safe” reports that British gymnastics is a dangerous extracurricular activity because about 75% of kids enrolled in programs are below 12 years of age and these children are treated badly. Due to bad treatment, these young children are frequently injured. The kids are emotionally abused because they get punished for small reasons like wanting to go to the bathroom. The little kids also get yelled at and sworn at by their teachers. The adults found out because they noticed that the kids were not looked after properly. For example, the text explains that “the report found lots of cases of children not being properly looked after, being treated inappropriately and not being kept safe.” Another example of maltreatment are the instances when the children are “made to sit in store cupboards if they cried or refused to perform a skill in training, being shouted at and called names, being forced to stand on the beam for an hour, and being sat on if they were not fully on the ground while performing the splits.” The kids were also forced to “wholeheartedly apologize” when they committed these supposed errors. This shows how horrible it is for the kids under the age of 12.

Reporting on this issue is very important because nobody wants little kids getting hurt or being badly injured. This is what is happening to the little kids in British gymnastics. When the adults heard about this conflict, they were very shocked. The article says: “the campaign group, Gymnasts For Change, felt the report was “shocking” and said the recommendations “fall far short of what is needed.” The campaign group wants to see “maximum limits on child athlete training hours” and new government laws on child safeguarding.” The existence of a campaign group further proves how grave the situation is in British gymnastics.

As the adults continue learning of this issue, they continue to advocate for safer places for their kids to learn gymnastics. If changes are made in these environments, children will not get hurt and they can be happy playing in a safe place! The campaign group has issued compassionate statements directed at the kids who were mistreated. The group hopes that these will help the children recover and inspire them to continue to follow their gymnast dreams. In a statement, the former Boss of British Gymnastics said, “I am deeply sorry I didn’t do more for everyone – especially the athletes – to feel supported, able to speak up and be heard.”