Morgan has been everywhere lately.
On the Half In, Half Out podcast.
The All Things Gymnastics podcast.
On the Tokyo Olympics REDDIT.
Morgan has things to SAY.
Read her piece on NBC SPORTS – Silence is compliance: Morgan Hurd’s call to action
Category: ethics
Jordyn says: Get Vaccinated
Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.
FIG Vault mats are dangerous
With or without bad lighting, they are too narrow for the most powerful vaulters in the world.
I’ve seen many injuries from missing the mat completely.
Click PLAY or watch it on Twitter.
Kevin Mazeika investigated by USAG
He’s on the “Pending Resolution” list.
“No Unsupervised Contact with Minors.”
Kevin Mazeika was head coach of the 2004 and 2008 U.S. Men’s Olympic Teams and National Team Coordinator from 2009-2016.
club SafeSport recommendations
From the UK’s leading children’s charity:
- a welfare or child protection officer who you can contact with any concerns
- a clear procedure for complaints and concerns
- written standards for good practice
- effective consent and emergency processes
- a safe recruitment process for staff and volunteers, including vetting
- staff and volunteers are trained in safeguarding children
- children and young people are suitably supervised (based on their age, ability, the activity and venue) by adults who are trained to care for them
- the activity takes place in a safe environment – and there are separate changing areas for children and adults
Via Gymnasts for Change – How can parents and carers help safeguard gymnasts?
Canada will not attend PanAms
Though I feel rotten for the Canadian athletes who trained an extra year for their last shot at qualifying for Tokyo, I agree with this decision.
As you know, in recent days Canada has had the worst COVID numbers of any English speaking nation in the world.
Gymnastics Canada has made the very difficult decision to not enter teams in the upcoming 2021 Senior Pan American Championships being held in Rio de Janeiro, BRA between June 4-13, 2021 and the 2021 Junior Pan American Championships slated for Guadalajara, MEX (artistic), and Guatemala City, GUA (rhythmic) due to health and safety concerns resulting from the COVID-19 global pandemic. …
The Senior Pan American Championships were Canada’s last chance qualifier event for the Tokyo Olympic Games in men’s artistic, women’s artistic, and rhythmic gymnastics. …
“We realize the impact these decisions have on our athletes, especially those senior athletes that have dedicated so many years to their ambition of competing at the Olympic Games,” added Moss. “We will do everything we can not only to support all athletes and coaches impacted by this decision through this difficult period, but to also provide hope and opportunity moving forward towards their international goals in the future.”
Athletes and coaches did have the opportunity to appeal this decision, and GymCan went through the Sport Dispute Resolution Centre of Canada (SDRCC) arbitration process with these individuals to show transparency around the decision. The result of that appeal, which ruled in GymCan’s favour, was delivered to all parties on May 6th, 2021.
Gymnastics Canada
coaches ‘selling or spoiling’ sport
Wayne Smith is one of the most thoughtful and outspoken pundits on coaching.
Coaches and Officials – more than anyone else – are directly responsible for whether your sport succeeds or fails.
Coaches and Officials can be powerful and effective advocates for all the wonderful things your sport has to offer.
And they can be just as influential in contributing to the demise and even complete destruction of your sport.
So the question is: Are your coaches and officials Spoiling Sport or Selling Sport? …
New Sport Future
Olympic qualification calendar
Spencer put together his best guesses on how the remaining Olympians will be selected.
It’s a list of meets with more questions than answers.
THE PATH TO TOKYO
Independent review of Gymnastics Australia
… revealed “systemic risk factors” within the sport, including for child abuse and neglect, misconduct, bullying, abuse, sexual harassment and assault towards athletes.
The review, undertaken by the Human Rights Commission, was commissioned by Gymnastics Australia in August 2020 after serious complaints were made alleging mental and physical abuse of athletes. …
“Some of these risk factors also exist in many other sports, including significant power disparities between athletes and coaches and administrators,” the report, titled Change The Routine, stated. …
“There is a spotlight on the human rights of athletes around the world …
Twelve recommendations for change were made …
Australian gymnastics ‘a high-risk environment for abuse’, review finds
Read the report.
Beyond Safe Sport
Gretchen Kerr, University of Toronto:
- At its core, the Safe Sport movement is about optimizing the sport experience for all—athletes, coaches, sport administrators, officials, support staff, and others in the sport environment.
- Broader societal changes have influenced the Safe Sport movement:
- Changing approaches to child and youth development
- The #MeToo/Time’s Up movements
- Increased attention to equity, diversity, and inclusion
- Highly publicized cases of athlete maltreatment
- For sport leaders, understanding the process of change (i.e., denial, resistance, exploration, and commitment) can be useful to successfully embedding Safe Sport practices within their sport.
This article addresses the next steps in the Safe Sport journey; specifically, how to move from a focus on prevention of harms to a focus on optimizing the sport experience for athletes and sport leaders alike. This journey involves a cultural change in sport—one that challenges some traditionally accepted assumptions and practices and encourages the adoption of new methods. Building on my work with National Sport Organizations (NSOs), this article has three aims:
- To show that Safe Sport extends beyond the prevention of harms to the optimization of sport experiences;
- To highlight some of the broader societal influences on Safe Sport, which are also affecting other sectors in Canada and abroad;
- To address some of the common concerns and questions about Safe Sport. …
Gymnastics Coaching.com 