Across 306 pages of her landmark report, Anne Whyte paints a shocking and often sickening picture of the culture at British Gymnastics at the grassroots and elite level from 2008 to 2020. This was a time when it was an essential part of Team GB’s medal factory, receiving more than £38m in UK Sport funding. But behind the scenes there were numerous abuses taking place.
During the period covered by Whyte’s review, the governing body received about 3,800 complaints. Yet between 2008 and 2016 it kept no detailed records of them. But now, at last, some of those stories are being heard.
Athletes were forced to hide food from coaches
Whyte says coaches would regularly check on gymnasts’ weight, sometimes on a daily basis, and seriously reduce their caloric intake. One gymnast told Whyte: “I would hide food in my toiletries bag, wrap cereal bars up in my socks and knickers and underneath the lining of my suitcase as I was petrified that the coaches would come in and search of our luggage for food. I was 18-19 at the time.”
Whyte notes: “I heard extreme accounts of gymnasts hiding food, for example in ceiling tiles or under the bed in their rooms. I received accounts of coaches checking hotel rooms ‘army style’ and travel bags for food.”
Grapes were banned
Not only was food rationed but some healthy sounding fruits were also banned. “I was told about various ways in which food was rationed or controlled, including bedroom bins being searched for food wrappers, being refused second portions, including of vegetables, and briefly providing gymnasts with children’s plates to eat from, with sections and ridges to reduce intake of food,” writes Whyte.
“Gymnasts also reported being told not to eat grapes because they are the ‘highest fat fruit’ and that their meal should be ‘the size of the palm of their hand’, including the vegetables.”
Coaches made no weight allowances for girls’ periods
One told Whyte: “I would take laxatives to ensure I could poo prior to weigh-ins or I would limit my consumption of water to ensure I was not counting much water weight. Our time of the months were never accounted for either. Being on my period meant I could add one or two kilograms to the weight on the scale. Immediately I would be shunned for this.”
Whyte said: “One sport scientist told me that they sometimes saw gymnasts taken off a piece of apparatus, mid-session, and weighed. This usually occurred when the coach felt the gymnast was underperforming. If the gymnasts had gained even the slightest weight, they reported that some coaches would effectively say: ‘That’s why you can’t complete your skill.’”
Verbal fat-shaming in front of peers
Whyte says many gymnasts reported inappropriate verbal communication about their weight or the weight of others. “For example, it was suggested that poor performance in a routine was because the gymnast was ‘fat’ or they were told not to wear certain leotards because they could make them look ’‘fat’,” Whyte says.
“I heard about derogatory language being used, such as ‘fat arse’, ‘you look like a whale’, ‘you look like you have a beer belly’, ‘your thighs are disgusting’, ‘you are spilling out of your leotard’. Another female gymnast said reference would be made to their developing breasts and ‘being hit in the face with them’.”
Emotional abuse saw injuries labelled as mental weakness
One former elite gymnast described being made to stand on the beam for two hours because she was frightened to attempt a skill. Some gymnasts were strapped to bars for extended periods of time while others were made to climb the rope because they needed the toilet or exceeded a break time.
“I received multiple submissions from elite gymnasts who were made to feel lazy, a failure and ‘mentally weak’ when it was acknowledged that they had sustained an injury,” says Whyte. “These experiences were spread across the age spectrum.”
Physical abuse during training
Whyte describes how one gymnast was deliberately dropped from equipment and dragged across the gym floor by their arms, while others were put under pressure to train with injuries, including broken bones.
“A male gymnast said that he would be slapped for unpointed toes or bent knees,” Whyte adds. “Another also said they would be physically slapped if they had not stood to attention.
“One international gymnast explained that their personal coach sat on a gymnast’s lower back, forcing their legs to the floor and then lifting up their knee causing severe pain. I was told that at no stage was the gymnast asked about the process or how it was affecting them. Another gymnast said they didn’t know how their legs didn’t snap when being stretched.”
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Gymnasts purged for weight loss
“One gymnast told me they deliberately lost 3kg in one weekend before a competition by starving themselves for two days and exercising excessively,” says Whyte. “The attitude of their coaches to weight made some of these young people feel as though any semblance of individuality had been stripped away.” As a result a “significant” number of gymnasts developed dysfunctional relationships with food, weight and body image. Reports of purging were not uncommon in the submissions.
Gymnasts as young as seven trained long hours
Whyte says it was not unusual for female artistic gymnasts to train for long hours from a very young age. I was informed about some seven- and eight-year-olds training for 20 hours a week or more. “A gymnast at national level since the beginning of the review told me they trained regularly for 30 hours plus a week during their teenage years. On three school days this would often consist of three hours before and four hours after school.”
Review received 30 reports of sexual abuse
This was investigated by British Gymnastics. “The issues raised ranged from reports of grooming and sexual assault to sexual remarks and inappropriate relationships between coaches and gymnasts,” Whyte says. “Other examples of the behaviours reported were gymnasts being tickled, touched on the bottom unnecessarily during gymnastics moves, threatened with being kissed as a punishment for not following instructions and sexualised comments of a personal nature.”
However, she adds: “None of these behaviours appeared to be systematic or condoned in the sport during the period of review, in the way emotional and physical abuse appears to have been.”
