Category: ethics

coach fired for calling gymnasts ‘beautiful’

Lindsay Nylund was fired from his role as a high-performance coach … in Sydney (Australia), in May, after he sent an email to parents with a picture of his winning team, describing them as “beautiful”.

“Hi all … Our beautiful FDLC Level 8 Women’s Artistic Gymnasts,” he wrote in the email in February, following a competition win.

… “Parents were outraged [over his termination], the coaching staff were outraged, everyone was outraged … Most people are flabbergasted, they can’t believe it. They think this is ridiculous.” …

Determined to get his job back, Mr Nylund has taken the case to the Industrial Relations Commission. …

According to The Australian, the council listed three other allegations in their termination notice, including that Mr Nylund “showed a lack of respect to management” by allowing a one-week membership fee freeze when it should have been two weeks.

He also allegedly transported athletes without parent consent and attended a social event at a local club, which the council claimed breached Child Safe Practice guidelines. …

A four-day hearing at the NSW IRC has been set for mid-November.

News.com.au

In praise of Gymnastics Unitards

They simply make more sense than the traditional one piece bathing suit.

Read Nancy Armour’s take ➙ How a unitard could help keep women in gymnastics past puberty

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

Hashimoto Daiki will compete AA

Hashimoto Daiki will compete in World all-around final despite finishing as the third best Japanese athlete

Only two athletes per country can advance to an individual final at the Worlds or Olympic Games …

Chiba Kenta, who posted the top score in the second of six qualifying sessions, a 85.799. Kaya Kazuma was second at 85.598, followed by Hashimoto’s 85.432.

Only two athletes per country can advance to an individual final in artistic gymnastics at the Worlds or Olympics, but a federation is free to substitute one athlete for another provided they would have qualified without the two athlete limit. …

“We already had a meeting because we decided to compete three gymnasts in the all around, so these kinds of things might happen,” Hiroaki said. “So we predicted it. If Hashimoto didn’t win, like, top three, and then we can just change that.”

Olympics.com

I’m fine with that decision — so long as all 3 athletes had agreed in advance.

I would make the same substitution. Daiki is defending World Champion.

Injuries before Worlds 2023

There are injuries before every major competition.

But Worlds 2023 — the Olympic qualifier — is the very worst time for contenders to be hurt.

British Gymnastics banned / expelled list

The published information is:

·         The name of the member

·         The primary role of the member within the sport (i.e. coach, judge, gymnast, etc)

·         The date the sanction was applied

·         The sanction (see below for a glossary of terms)

·         The category of the sanction (see below)

British Gymnastics is being criticized for not doing more. But I’m willing to give them credit for this first step in making the sport safer and more ethical.

See the list here.

Simone’s YDP = 6.4 difficulty

FIG WTC has been hilariously bad at rating new skills in the past.

But they got Simone’s Vault difficulty correctly rated at 6.4.

Click PLAY or watch it on YouTube.

report on Tom Farden

Farden will stay on with Utah. But has been warned and will be monitored moving forward.

This is not to say that the complainants were wrong. I fully respect the courage they showed sharing negative experiences. But the report deemed that Farden’s conduct did not exceed the threshold to recommend dismissal.

sex differences and sport

We are unique in having men and women do such different apparatus in a sport commonly called Artistic Gymnastics.

There are pros and cons, of course.

There are distinct differences between men and women. It’s not always logical to have women do exactly the same sport, same rules, same equipment as men.

For one thing, women are far more likely to suffer ACL injury than men.

It makes sense to change rules and put women at lower risk of ligament tears, if possible. Different landing mats, for example.

Simone’s Yurchenko Double Pike is as good or better than any male. BUT — on average — women are more flexible, less strong than men.

…Scientific questions of relative performance lead to those of player safety, and ultimately to philosophy: what do varying opinions about changing women’s game reveal about the purpose of sport in society? …

Economist – Women are not the same as men. Should the rules and kit of their sports be?

Economist has a good podcast on the topic.

The GymCastic interview with Steve Butcher touches on some of the same points.