I watched gymnastics documentary Athlete A five days ago. I’m still struggling to find the words to write this post.
My formative years were spent doing gymnastics. I just loved it. I reached elite level in the UK – the then national zone squad – but fell shy of competing for GB. Turns out a spinal fusion operation due to a gymnastics-induced stress fracture at 17 was not conducive to continuing my beloved sport.
I was devastated… for years… about having to give up.
The abrupt curtailment of training for three hours every night after school, 11-5 at weekends if I had National Squad, and competitions across the UK to well, nothing, left me disorientated. If I wasn’t ‘Jo the gymnast’ as my friends used to call me, who the hell was I? And, I couldn’t help but wonder, what the blazers did people do with all this free time?
But here’s the thing. My impact was just a regular, girl does gymnastics, girl loves gymnastics, girl is injured, girl has to stop gymnastics, girl is sad story. And my experience clobbered me. For years.
Impact
I cannot even begin to understand the devastating impact of the sexual abuse suffered by American gymnasts at the hands of paedophile Larry Nassar, even after watching Netflix documentary, Athlete A.
Released on Wednesday (June 24), the one hour 44 minute one-off programme documents the absolute horror of not only the abuse perpetrated by the USA Gymnastics doctor, for which he’s now serving a life term, but the enablers, the adults that provided a fertile ground for this to happen.
The adults in positions of power at national governing body USA Gymnastics who did nothing when gymnasts started to tentatively come forward. Nothing to safeguard these children in their care. Not even nothing. Genuinely obstructing investigations into the doctor – then, and still now – who also worked at Michigan State University and local gym, Twistars.
Karma
So yes, the documentary is a horror show, the fact some of these enablers still surround the gymnasts, continuing to withhold information about how this happened, an abomination. These women should be recovering, not still having to fight with every fibre of their being to uncover the truth to make sure this doesn’t ever happen again.
But Athlete A is also about strength – not in a physical sense – but in a human-being sense. It’s about the journalist human beings at local and national level pulling at the thread to unravel the story; about the prosecutors and law enforcement human beings who believed these now-women and made sure that every single one was heard; and it is about the human-being community who rallied round to keep pushing for change – including devastated mums and dads, team-mates, and friends.
Mostly though, it is about the most amazing human beings at the centre of this narrative, the gymnasts themselves who suffered so appallingly during their own formative years. With so much taken from them so young, they have now grown into powerful young women who are pushing back and saying, ‘Not anymore you don’t. We’re the adults now’.
Further comment about Athlete A
Articles
Opinion: ‘Athlete A’ Netflix documentary reminds us of OU gymnast Maggie Nichols’ greatness on and off the mat via The Oklahoman.
Athlete A: Questions on Larry Nassar scandal explored in Netflix documentary via BBC Sport.
Podcast
430: Athlete A with Jennifer Sey via Gymcastic.
