Around the Gymternet: Oh my goddess

/ March 5, 2018

83c4ca95c1ce47749ab791cb40c4faa8

“Maloney to Ricna, piked Jaeger, then the stream gave out AND STARTED SHOWING AN AD LITERALLY I’M GOING TO KILL.” -The type of calm, collected coverage you’ve come to know and love here at The Gymternet 😉

Comp news

Scam: USA’s Yul “the hair” Moldauer and Morgan Hurd took the 2018 American Cup titles, with Great Britain’s James Hall and Japan’s Mai Murakami each taking second. Sadly, Lauren couldn’t be there, but you can still read her reactions, mostly in caps. I can also confirm at this time that 300 points were added for Gryffindor. 

Nastia Liukin Cup: Junior Olympians Haleigh Bryant and Tory Vetter took the senior and junior all-around titles, respectively.

All the young dudes: USA Gymnastics has announced the dudes who will be competing at upcoming world cups. Akash Modi will head to Stuttgart, Donathan Bailey’s going to Birmingham, Marvin Kimble’s going to Doha, and Sam Mikulak will head to Tokyo.

Gymnix: The roster for the Junior Cup has been released, as has the list of U.S. participants in the Challenge. Gymnasts from Canada, France, Belgium, Spain, Mexico, Argentina, Puerto Rico, Bermuda, and Jamaica will be joining them.

Verification: Gymcastic’s Jessica O’Beirne attended last week’s verification and has answers to all of your burning questions.

Worlds 2021: Since apparently we plan this far ahead, they’ll be held in Copenhagen.

What’s happening

Aly files suit: Aly Raisman filed a lawsuit on Wednesday against USAG and the U.S. Olympic Committee, alleging that they “knew or should have known” about Larry Nassar’s abuse. She will also file suit against Michigan State University.

Blackmun out: USOC CEO Scott Blackmun resigned on Wednesday, citing health issues. This follows criticism, including from two senators, of how the USOC handled allegations of abuse.

The feds: The FBI will conduct an internal review into how they’ve handled the abuse case. This news comes one month after The New York Times reported that the FBI took a year to pursue the case.

On the hill: Survivors Jordyn Wieber, Jamie Dantzscher, and Jeanette Antolin met with legislators on Capitol Hill Wednesday to discuss the abuse they experienced as gymnasts. Wieber later appeared on Fox News, saying that the USOC, USAG, and MSU “all failed us.”

The state of USAG: USAG CEO Kerry Perry released a video statement on Friday, listing the changes that USAG has made in light of the scandal, though she says that “Our work is far from being done.” Power mom Lynn Raisman is not impressed, and neither is Kathy Johnson Clarke.

#HimToo: The first male survivor has come forward in the Larry Nassar case, filing a lawsuit against Nassar, MSU, and USAG on Wednesday.

Hiring and firing: USAG confirmed on Wednesday that Vice President of Development Luan Peszek has left the org. Peszek is Samantha Peszek’s mother, and had been with USAG for nearly 30 years. Meanwhile, six directors have been chosen to serve on USAG’s interim board.

The state of Michigan

The law: Dozens of survivors—including Rachael Denhollander, Jordyn Wieber, and Lindsey Lemke—gathered at the Michigan Capitol Monday to encourage legislators to pass a package of 10 bills aimed at preventing future incidences of sexual assault.

A Michigan Senate committee unanimously approved the law on Tuesday. It moves to the full Senate next.

The suits: Also on Monday, U.S. Secretary of Education Betsy DeVos announced that more investigators would be sent to MSU to investigate its handling of Larry Nassar’s abuse.

The state: Michigan’s congressional delegation criticized MSU’s trustees for their handling of the Larry Nassar case on Wednesday, with lawmakers arguing that the board needs to be held accountable.

Required reading

  • Coaches like Kim Zmeskal are ditching old coaching practices to ensure athlete safety, and gymnasts like McKenzie Wofford are speaking up about Valeri Liukin (Sports Day).
  • USAG is in shambles, but U.S. gymnasts are still training 30 to 40 hours a week (The New York Times).
  • The New York Times collected comments from the gymternet about the future of gymnastics.
  • Here’s to hoping that Aly Raisman’s lawsuit will bring about real change (USA Today).
  • MSU’s issues go beyond Nassar: It needs a new board (Chicago Tribune).
  • One thing remains unscathed after the abuse scandal: The love of the sport (The Washington Post).

Star status

Biles is back: Simone Biles has been added to the national team after sharing footage of herself doing #SimoneThings.

Salty snacks: Mao Yi, who broke her femur on vault at the American Cup, has had surgery, and things are looking promising. The FIG president visited her in the hospital and brought Sun Chips (?).

Oh hello: Aly Raisman and Mihai Brestyan met up in Australia. What my meetup with Mihai would look like: “Who is this strange woman, and why is she holding me while sobbing?”

Achilles’ wrath: It struck again with Claudia Fragapane, who will miss the Commonwealth Games.

We see you: Margzetta Frazier was spotted training a laid out full-in. In this video, I’m the girl standing there wondering what she should be doing.

Hawaiian shirt alert: Welsh gymnast and Commonwealth bronze medalist Georgina Hockenhull has retired due to injury.

NCAA corner

The coeds: Here are recaps of recent college meets.

Math: RQS rankings have been calculated.

Keeping it swaggie: Maggie Nichols is living her best life: She left her car running for an hour. She also posted this compilation of the Oklahoma team making their best mid-air faces.

Get well soon: Minnesota freshman Ona Loper will miss the rest of the season due to injury.

Because you asked…

Who were the youngest-ever national champs? TL;DR: It’s actual babies.

Need to know

The top all-around score of 2018 currently belongs to Japan’s Hitomi Hatakeda, who earned it at the WOGA Classic.

Last words

Buy this shirt, now.

Want to help out and qualify for super fun rewards for as little as $1/month? Check us out on Patreon!

Follow The Gymternet on Twitter and like us on Facebook.

Related posts

15 thoughts on “Around the Gymternet: Oh my goddess”

  2. McKenzie Wofford, who trained at four Texas gyms before helping Oklahoma to three national championships from 2014-17, said Liukin told her to sit on the scale in front of him and her father to show she’d gained weight. She told The News she didn’t gain any weight.

    Another time, at a national camp, Wofford came down with a serious stomach virus and said Liukin wouldn’t excuse her from training until she showed a trainer her stool as proof. Her parents pulled her from the gym after that incident.

    “The longer you’re there,” Wofford said, “the crazier he gets.”

    UM really MR Liukin? Crazy!

    Like

    Reply

      • I don’t think so, because the gymternet already knew about the diarrhea story. Except, the rumour was worse; it was that Liukin didn’t let Wofford sit out during the camp even despite her illness. So actually the truth turns out a little easier to swallow.

        Also, I don’t really understand the point of the sitting on the scale story? Maybe some parts are missing? It sounds like “He tried to make me look bad in front of my dad, but then it wasn’t bad”. What is that supposed to convey? Or maybe she meant that she did actually gain weight and Liukin shamed her in front of her dad, and there is a typo in the story?

        Like

        Reply

        • To me, the points sounded like: (a) making a kid constantly weigh themselves is bad, esp in front of an audience or parents, and (b) he was neurotic about size to the point of making her do that even when she hadn’t gained any weight – like he was having dysmorphia on her behalf.

          Like

        • Yeah, the detail about whether or not she actually lost weight is missing the point. The point is that a coach, who should be encouraging healthy training (and development in general) was like “I KNOW YOU GAINED WEIGHT, FATTY, AND I’M GOING TO MAKE YOU WEIGH YOURSELF WHILE YOUR DAD AND I WATCH SO I CAN PROVE IT.” That’s… really bad.

          I also have to disagree with your assessment of the diarrhea story (although either version would be bad, of course). The issue here is that instead of treating gymnasts like the responsible young women they are, he instead made her call someone in to *look at the toilet after she’d had diarrhea* to prove she wasn’t lying. First of all, it’s insulting, because the lack of trust makes it seem like these gymnasts are naughty toddlers, instead of incredibly hardworking young adults. And also, it’s humiliating and degrading! Can you imagine having to do that?

          So essentially, what these two stories are pointing to is mental abuse, not to mention a culture where gymnasts are treated like misbehaving children who are not allowed to make any decisions for themselves, especially in terms of their own well being. Which is exactly the kind of culture that led to hundreds of people being abused and feeling like there was nothing they could about it, because they had no agency over their own lives. Everything in USAG was just, “shut up and listen to the grown ups, and if you complain, you’re being a baby/not dedicated enough/out of control/etc.”

          Like

Leave a comment