Here’s a strange story we missed in Florida in 2006.
… One of the coaches admits to stabbing training gymnasts with drywall screws for years. Investigators said it happened at Ace Gymnastics in Longwood, where one of the owners is an Olympian.
The phrase “stick it” is used in gymnastics about dismounts and landings, but one of the coaches told investigators he was taught to stick them when the gymnasts don’t have perfect form. …
Seminole County sheriff’s investigators said Coach Mike Turner and another coach repeatedly stabbed one of the boys and a brother repeatedly with dry wall screws, breaking the skin on their buttocks, leaving permanent scarring.
Last year, their mother noticed the scars during bathing and found out what was happening. Investigators said she told the owner, former Olympian Joan Moore Gnat, about it and they said Ace Gymnastics hired a new head coach and made sure the practice stopped.
But Ace never told all the other parents about it, never reported the alleged abuse to law enforcement and kept the two coaches on staff.… A second mother has since come forward, saying her son was also subjected to the drywall screw for less than perfect form.
“If they weren’t tight enough or in the right positions,” the mother, who didn’t want to be identified, told Eyewitness News. …
The second coach was Chris Bonn.
Leave a comment if you know what happened to the two coaches.
(via a random gymnastics facts post on Couch Gymnast)
Gymnastics Coaching.com 