Dr. Bill Sands has an anonymous SafeSport survey for U.S. gymnastics coaches online.
Click through to fill it out here.
The cover letter below explains. The survey fast & easy. 10 items and demographics.
Category: ethics
NCAA Gymnastics is not for everyone
Heather Parker, entering her second season as a gymnast at Central Michigan after transferring from Georgia, posted an important article on College Gym News:
College gymnastics can project an image of perfection–skills look effortless, and the athletes finish successful routines with glowing smiles. Teams broadcast the wins, celebrations, recruits, and rankings on social media.
Less often discussed is what goes into making a team successful and what happens behind the scenes to make those exciting competitions happen.
Jason Vonk, a former assistant coach at George Washington, Yale, and Georgia, had 12 years of experience across the three universities when he moved on from college coaching.
According to Vonk, a lot of what defined his time in college gymnastics wasn’t reflected in the polished version of the sport that fans and recruits see. For him, it was a system marked by fear, silence, and a culture where, as he puts it, “head coaches get complete leeway, and the assistants can’t report them, or they will lose their job.” …
Read more:
College Gymnastics Looks Perfect—
Until You’re Inside It
Epstein to Larry Nassar FAKE letter
When first seeing the letter I assumed it was fake. And it was.
The Trump incompetents released the letter on December 22nd.
Next day the FBI pointed out the obvious. It’s a fake that never should have been circulated.
SafeSport suspensions: Al Fong (5 years) & Armine Barutyan (1 year)
Both pending appeal.
Fong and Barutyan’s suspensions are active and enforceable as of the date of issuance: December 22, 2025. They retain the right to appeal the sanctions, which could result in the suspensions being upheld, modified, reduced, or otherwise altered.
Here’s the only response I’ve seen, so far.
Gymnast paralyzed training Round-off Back Tuck
Gymnastics is dangerous.
This severe injury resulted in a lawsuit in Arizona.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Skate Canada will not host events in Alberta
Skate Canada says it will no longer host major events in Alberta following a review of the province’s legislation on the participation of transgender athletes in women’s sport. …
Opponents of the bill (including me) say it’s more about stigmatizing and punishing those in the transgender community, and using them as a political football to advance the UCP’s agenda while appealing to a conservative voter base. …
Skate Canada to stop holding national, international events in Alberta
The current Alberta government is right leaning. This legislation is simply pandering to a base that hates minorities.
I feel sports organizations should decide eligibility, not politicians.
IF Skate Canada bans transgender athletes, I’d be OK with that. IF they allow transgender athletes under some kind of criteria, I’d be happy with that, as well.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
East German coach Dieter Hofmann
When Hofmann died of COVID-19 in April 2020, the international gymnastics community remembered him as an innovator and mentor.
The tributes focused on his technical knowledge shared generously, on a coach “always willing and eager” to help programs worldwide.
None mentioned “The Rose.” None referenced the Stasi files or the pharmaceutical protocols. …
I attended a number of Hofmann’s coaching courses.
He was a coaches coach. Very good at planning. A proven winner. His team won no fewer than 52 medals at Olympic Games, World and European Championships.
I have no doubt that his main passion was beating the USSR.
BUT in that era of the DDR, you cooperated with the Stasi (secret police) or lost your job.
In that era of the DDR, if higher-ups told you to test new drugs on gymnasts, you did it.
I knew very little about all these new revelations — aside from the drugs he told us about at one coaching course. Some kind of steroids. They tried them on junior male gymnasts ultimately deciding that the benefits weren’t worth the risk.
Uncle Tim put together a career retrospective on Dieter Hoffman. So far as I can verify with contemporaries, it’s very accurate. Uncle Tim is a terrific researcher.
Read more …
Gymnastics-History.com – Code Name “Rose”: The Double Life of East Germany’s Head Coach
European Gymnastics to allow AIN individuals
Personally, I would have voted against.
Putin is solely responsible for mass murder. He started this war. He could end it tomorrow.
It’s clear FIG wants AIN gymnasts back in official competition including the Olympics.
European Gymnastics has lifted its blanket ban on Russian and Belarusian athletes, clearing the way for them to return to continental competitions for the first time since the invasion of Ukraine.
The decision came on Friday at the 2025 European Gymnastics Congress in Prague.
A vote took place with 46 countries reportedly participating: 27 voted in favor of lifting the ban, 15 voted against, and four abstained. …
European Gymnastics lifts total ban on Russian, Belarusian athletes
Putin’s war has between 400,000 and 1.5 million Ukrainian estimated casualties (killed and wounded) during the Russian invasion of Ukraine from February 24, 2022 till November, 2025.
Casualties of the Russo-Ukrainian war
Patrick Kiens & Daymon Jones’ interview
An excellent podcast.
Patrick Kiens and Daymon Jones, now at WCC Texas, previously coach the Romanian team.
- abuse within the Romanian system
- video and more allegations against Camilla Voinea
- artistry on beam and floor
- new information on doping in the former East Germany
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
coach Camelia Voinea – Gymnastics drama
Camelia Voinea competed for Romania between 1984 and 1988. The first gymnast to tumble a double layout to punch front on Floor.
Today Camelia coaches her daughter Sabrina, born 2007. Yes, that’s the excellent gymnast who would have won a Bronze medal on Floor in Paris IF her mother / coach had submitted an inquiry on time. Romania — at the time — thought Sabrina would win the Bronze medal, even with the wrongfully assessed 0.1 out of bounds deduction so they didn’t appeal.
Coach Camelia Voinea, we are told, is not up on the Code of Points. She tried to appeal the E-score, at one competition, for example. Not allowed, as every other coach knows.
Always controversial, Camelia is back in the headlines after recent allegations of physical, verbal, and mental abuse by multiple former gymnasts.
To get caught up, listen to the GymCastic podcast interview with former Romanian national team coaches Daymon Jones and Patrick Kiens.
Romanian Gymnastics administration remains a dumpster fire.
Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.
Gymnastics Coaching.com 