By: Nikila Rajan

Anne Whyte QC has shown that children who take part in British Gymnastics weren’t taken care of.

A lawyer named Anne Whyte QC was asked to look into how the sport was being run. She stated, “I hope that the findings in this report will allow the gymnast community to feel that the failures of the past have been publicly recognized and enable the sport to move forward and make positive changes.”

There were many examples of cruel treatment if a gymnast couldn’t do a trick or task. This included being forced to sit in cupboards if they cried or refused to do a task, being screamed at or called names, being made to stand on a beam for an hour, or being sat on if they didn’t go all the way to the ground in their splits.

Many people say that this kind of treatment is bad for a child’s mental health, and a former Team GB athlete, Nicola Paver, said that how she and the others were treated is child abuse.

The boss of British Gymnastics, Sarah Powell, says, “I want to wholeheartedly apologize to the gymnasts who have suffered as a result of us not working to the standards we set ourselves. We are sorry… We will change gymnastics for the better.”