For many, many gymnasts the opportunity for a College scholarship to gain their education is a fantastic experience. Indeed, the vast majority of gymnasts I’ve spoken with are happy with their decision to compete after Club.
BUT it doesn’t work for all. I’m particularly concerned about risk of serious injury competing so many times each season in NCAA.
Recently, Molly Hensley-Clancy and Emily Giambalvo did a deep dive into female college gymnasts complaints for the Washington Post:
Beneath NCAA gymnastics’ glow, a familiar ‘toxic’ culture
Female gymnasts say college was supposed to offer a reprieve from intense club programs. Then they arrived on campus and found more of the same.
I believe that story is not behind the paywall.
Schools identified in the article:
- University of North Carolina
- LSU
- Utah
- Penn State
- Clemson
- Utah State
Eating disorders are common for many young women, especially college athletes. But studies consistently find female gymnasts are at a staggeringly high risk, with a 2004 study finding 42 percent of gymnasts and other elite “aesthetic sport” athletes, such as figure skaters, had disordered eating habits, compared with 16 percent in sports like soccer or basketball.
Certainly I believe the complainants.
I also believe that many of their teammates had positive experiences with the same coaches. Both can be simultaneously true.
Are things getting better in the NCAA?
Gymnastics Coaching.com 
I’ve seen the eating issue in female gymnastics in college. Many of the girls had an issue with being moderately fat. I don’t mean departing from some twink vision of a ballerina. I mean the “freshman 15” on top of a normal physique. A few girls had a normal healthy physique. And one girl had anorexia, eventually to the extent she could not compete (life threatening). The fatter girls were under moderate pressure to diet. The anorexic girl was counseled to eat.
In contrast, I saw zero issues of fatness or anorexia on the male gymnastics team.
I’m not sure what the answer is. But I would be absolutely clear it is NOT just evil Nastia lovers pursuing an unhealthy physique. The truth is that many young women tend to put on fat in the US (more than the normal physique) and this is definitely something that makes weight bearing tricks and almost any sport (other than sumo wrestling and English Channel swimming) harder.
I also dislike the female college sport emphasis on lower difficulty as it removes one of the key joys of the sport (learning new tricks). In contrast, the men have embraced the unbounded difficulty approach of international competition.
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