British Gymnastics offers full apology after £3m Whyte review finds ‘unacceptable culture’ enabled emotional and physical abuse of children as young as seven
British Gymnastics enabled a culture where young gymnasts were starved, body shamed and abused in a system that ruthlessly put the pursuit of medals over the protection of children, a devastating report has found.
Around 75% of British Gymnastics’ members are children under the age of 12 and her report found girls were subjected to some of the worst treatment, which Whyte says was caused by “long-standing cultural problems”, initially by the arrival of Soviet-style coaches. Whyte said: “Coaches went to damaging lengths to control what gymnasts ate and weighed, to the extent of searching luggage and rooms for food.”
Incredibly, Whyte found that British Gymnastics kept no records of complaints from 2008 and 2016 while a “culture of fear” meant many gymnasts were too scared to come forward. Powell was unable to say if anyone had been disciplined – or whether the coaches responsible for the worst forms of abuse were still in the British system. But she insisted: “This is not everywhere,” adding: “There are great coaches, hundreds of thousands of young people enjoying the sport day in, day out.”
However, Sport England admitted to Whyte: “Its own historic performance-related targets had probably driven the wrong sort of behaviour in sport although it had no way of knowing whether it had caused abusive behaviour.”Download the Guardian app from the iOS App Store on iPhones or the Google Play store on Android phones by searching for 'The Guardian'.In the Guardian app, tap the yellow button at the bottom right, then go to Settings , then Notifications.
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